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Fairfax
Cone inherited a great advertising agency from
Albert Lasker. Together with his associates,
Emerson Foote, and Don Belding and their successors,
Cone led that agency through more than thirty
years of growth and change, preserving the agency's
greatness while giving it a new type of stature
and keeping the headquarters in Chicago.
Cone's leadership began during
a period when the advertising industry was subject
to intense public criticism. Along with Leo
Burnett, Bruce Barton and a small group of others,
Cone led the industry's efforts to achieve social
responsible self-regulation. |
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| A. Search for
a Meaningful Career |
| Fairfax Cone
was raised in a prosperous middle class California
university community. His interests in high
school were in art, and he intended to become
an illustrator. Cone entered the University
of California at Berkeley in 1921. His love
for drawing, caused him to not spend enough
time focused on his studies. He failed to pass
the required courses and was sent home. When
he returned, Fairfax Cone discovered literature.
He concentrated on his studies and decided to
become an English professor. |
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Upon graduation,
he was invited to become a teaching fellow in
the English department, only to discover he
had not completed a require physical education
course. A disagreement over the course persisted
until 1947. By this time, he had accepted a
position with the San
Francisco
Examiner as an advertising
clerk. After eight months his supervisor suggested
that Cone apply for a position in the Promotions
Department where he could use his artistic talent.
Fairfax Cone got the job and under the direction
of Truman Bailey, he began to learn same basic
principles. |
| In 1928, Cone left the Examiner
and went to work for the L. H. Waldron advertising
agency in San Francisco. A year later he joined
the San Francisco office of Lord and Thomas,
one of the largest advertising agencies in the
nation. Lord and Thomas wanted to employ Cone
as an artist, but Cone insisted on being given
a chance at copy writing and he was granted
the opportunity. |
| B. Early Years at Lord
and Thomas |
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Cone was a natural and gifted writer.
He quickly learned that advertising "is the
language of business that is used to tell someone
something of importance." From Truman Bailey
he learned advertising "is a matter of being
as direct and as simple as you can, of honest
promises explained sensibly." During
his early years at Lord and Thomas, Cone met
and worked with Fred Ludekens, an artist. Together
they developed five principles that guided Fairfax
Cone for the rest of his career.
 The ad
must make clear the basic business proposition.
The basic proposition must express a well
defined value.
The value of the offering
must be expressed in personal terms.
The ad must express the personality of the
advertiser.
The ad must demand action.
Cone's work at Lord and Thomas
caught the attention of many advertising agencies
in the country. One of these was J. Stirling
Getchell, Inc., Cone accepted an offer to join
them in New York. Unfortunately, while enroute
to New York he became ill and for the most part
of the next ten years he was plagued by a mysterious
illness, later diagnosed as an overactive pancreas.
Soon he resigned from J. Stirling Getchell,
Inc. for health reasons and returned to Lord
and Thomas in San Francisco for a more hospitable
climate. |
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| C. Rise to the
Ranks of Management |
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In
1939, Cone became the manager of the Lord and
Thomas San Francisco office. Despite losing
a major coffee company client, Cone managed
to obtain the Sunmaid Raisin account, part of
Safeway Stores, and others which brought him
recognition from Albert
Lasker, the owner of Lord and Thomas.
Although Cone worked for Lord
and Thomas, he did not meet Albert Lasker until
March 1941. Impressed with the potential in
Cone, Lasker began to attempt to persuade Cone
to move to the New York office. Cone moved to
New York in December 1941, where he was assigned
to work directly with George Hill, who was head
of the American Tobacco Company Lucky Strike
campaign, a very significant account for Lord
and Thomas. In 1942, Cone moved to the
Chicago office of Lord and Thomas, and was placed
in charge of the new Frigidaire account. Lasker
appointed Cone as manager of the Chicago office
in October. |
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| D. Beginning of Foote,
Cone and Belding |
| Lasker decided
to retire from Lord and Thomas in December 1941.
He planned to liquidate Lord and Thomas but
hoped Fairfax Cone of the Chicago office, Emerson
Foote of the New York office and Don Belding
in California would continue the business under
the name "Foote, Cone and Belding". Lasker solicited
Lord and Thomas clients to continue with the
new company, in which all but one did. Thus
on December 29, 1942 Foote, Cone and Belding
was born. |
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The three men were
devoted to running an ethical, professional
and socially responsible company, regardless
of the consequences. For a decade, Fairfax Cone,
chairman of the Executive Committee, Don Belding,
Chairman of the Board, and Emerson Foote, President,
ran the agency as a team. In 1952 poor health
caused Foote to retire and Belding retired in
1959 at the age of 60, to devote most of his
time to public affairs. Although new men replaced
Foote and Belding, Cone continued to be the
"leader amoung leaders" in the management of
Foote, Cone and Belding, where he served on
the Board of Directors until 1975. |
| Cone's amazing longevity in the
business can be attributed to his interest and
concern with the "professionalization" of advertising,
the sheer pleasure he derived
from the act of product presentations and the
fact that shortly after the establishment of
Foote, Cone and Belding, Albert Lasker discovered
a doctor who had devised a simple, effective
treatment for Cone's illness. |
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E. Product Presentation
During the years of Cone's leadership,
Foote, Cone and Belding held its position
as one of the largest ten advertising firms
in the country for more than 30 years. Cone
endowed the business with a certain dignity
and professionalism that made it an excellent
model of how a socially responsible advertising
agency should behave.
Fairfax Cone's favorite part
of the advertising business was product presentation
and throughout his decades of agency leadership
he kept himself actively engaged in developing
new advertising campaigns. |
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Some of the accounts
Cone was actively involved in were: Toni
home permanent kit, Armour, "Dial"
soap, Hallmark Cards, Kool-Aid, Good Seasons
Salad Dressings, Klear, Raid, Clairol hair coloring,
Zenith television, Dole Pineapple, Contac cold
relief medicine, Sunbeam shavers, the Edsel
and Sara
Lee baked goods. In each of these accounts
Cone was involved in heading the team that developed
the advertising campaign. |
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F. Making Advertising Respectable
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| Shortly after
Foote, Cone and Belding was established in 1942
an event occurred that jeopardized the advertising
industry and created the need for industry statesmanship
that was partially filled by Fairfax Cone. A
sensational novel " The Hucksters" was published
that portrayed advertising as a deceitful and
degrading vocation. The book was followed by
a motion picture in 1946. Most advertising agencies
were angered as they considered this an unjust
attack on their business, but only a few resolved
to do anything about the image of the advertising
industry.
Fairfax Cone was one of those individuals
and his efforts to improve advertising's reputation
during the next quarter century became one
of his greatest contributions to the industry.
Cone became a significant participant in the
Advertising Council.
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Cone became the director of the American
Association of Advertising Agencies in 1946.
Through his leadership this group attempted
to make advertising more respected. During
this time Cone wrote a great deal on the subject
of advertising and it's respectability. He
wrote about what was right and wrong with
advertising and how it should be corrected
or stressed; and he wrote about the obligations
of the industry leaders to strive for increased
professionalism. Cone
practiced his "Professionalism" beliefs in
his own business life. Through his example
he helped an important industry make itself
socially responsible and respectable. | |
| Conclusion
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Fairfax Cone was a natural
and gifted artist and writer who was able to
develop unique advertising campaigns. His abilities
were noticed by Albert
Lasker, owner of Lord and Thomas, in 1941.
Lord and Thomas was dissolved in 1942 and "Foote,
Cone and Belding" was established The three
new owners were committed to running an ethical,
professional and socially responsible company,
regardless of the consequences. Cone's professionalism
prevailed throughout Foote, Cone and Belding.
His favorite part of advertising was product
presentations and he was an active member in
the development of many campaigns. In addition,
his activities in the American Association of
Advertising Agencies contributed to the establishment
of advertising as a professional vocation and
a respectable industry. |
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