Leo entered university in 1910 and graduated four years later with a degree in journalism. (He paid for his education working as a night editor of a small newspaper, and by lettering show cards for a department store.(he was a legit signpainter!))
He was hire to edit a house magazine for the Cadillac Motor Car Company
During World War I, Burnett joined the Navy for six months. His service was mostly at Great Lakes building a breakwater, a fact he later told his children "caused a great deal of agitation among the German High Command and was probably responsible for the loss of Verdun."
After the USN, Burnett returned to Cadillac. A few employees at Cadillac formed the LaFayette Motors Company – getting Burnett to move to Indianapolis to work for the new firm as advertising manager
In 1955, the year the Marlboro Man campaign debuted, sales of Malboro hit $5 billion -- a 3,241% increase over 1954's sales.
https://www.adweek.com/agencyspy/leo-burnett-chicago-goes-through-a-round-of-layoffs-as-philip-morris-pivots-away-from-cigarettes/153856/
He started his own advertising agency at age 42, in 1935, at the depths of the Depression, by selling his home. He nurtured it, loved it and saw it grow into the fourth largest agency in the U.S. and the fifth largest in the world.
After the shock of Pearl Harbor, Leo plunged into work for The War Advertising Council. One of his first acts was volunteering the agency’s time in the crusade to collect scrap metal for the war effort.
Philip Morris USA, and its signature brand Marlboro, was one of the agency’s oldest and most historic clients, with Leo Burnett since 1954, when PM wanted to shift it's image away from it's decades as a woman's smoke
Burnett created The Marlboro Man to help sell a more masculine image for the first cigarette brand with a filter, and a Marlboro Man starred in nearly every major campaign for approximately 50 years
Burnett firmly believed in the superiority of images over words and in the power of visuals in creating brand identity and his great imagination led him to the creation of fantastic characters who are still recognized and associated with the brand they represent today. Tony the Tiger, the Jolly Green Giant, the Marlboro Man - just a couple examples
When Burnett retired, he also left his agency teams with a speech to top all speeches. In the speech, Burnett specifically calls for his name to be removed from the premises, if/when the place no longer cherishes ideas and the people who have them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Burnett
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Burnett
They need to change this electric clock
ReplyDeleteWonderful synopsis. I know of the agency but knew little about Mr. Burnett. The Marlboro Man ws indeed a departure. He had to be absolutely masculine. In the 1970's he was a definitely very hairy blonde man. T humor of "Marlboro Country" is that it is not at all in The West but is Marlboro Maryland which had a tobacco auction house. Thanks for the information on this gent.
ReplyDelete