Tobacco Documents Online

Ad Age Editorial Viewpoint 'Just an ink-stained wretch' Those were the exact words that Leo Burnett uttered' in a 1967 interview with Advertising Age. AA's editor had asked him to comment on the future growth of the Burnett agency, and his full reply was: "I'm just an ink-stained wretch. I don't know much about those financial matters. If you make good enough ads, inevitably you grow." These simple words are a good measure of this great man: His great- ness lay in the seemingly simple, direct approach he took to soliring advertising problems. He had a capacity for work- ing that few men many years his junior could' match. And he had extraordinary skill in hammering away at a problem until he could figure out the best possi- ble solution. A lot of remembrances of Leo sprang into this writer's mind after he got the phone call on the evening of the adver- tising man's death. One favorite is of Leo at the race track, dressed in very casual clothes, wearing a wild, colorfull tam-like cap and black-and-white shoes, and with the ever-present cig- aret in his mouth. This writer could never bring himself to go over and chat with Mr. Burnett at the track because between races he studied his form with the same fierce intensity that he would devote to developing a creative ad strategy for a client. During the same interview quoted from above, AA's editor asked Leo if he was a racing enthusiast. "No, not at all," he sai& at first, but then he added: "But our farm is not too far from Arlington. I go over there a few Saturdays during the season and' find it a pretty good' way to get your mind off business. I'll tell you, you can't make an ad' at a race track." Our final reminiscence has to do with the way in which that 1967 inter- view with Leo came to pass. Earlier that year Leo removed himself from the post of board chairman of the agen- cy and assumed the title of founder chairman. This seemed to AA to be an appropriate time to try and get Mr. Burnett to sit down and talk about his ideas and philosophy of advertising and agency operation-something Leo had never consented to do before, pro- fessing a d'istinct distaste for interviews. So this writer dropped him a short note suggesting a lengthy, tape re- corded interview with AA's editors. One day the phone rang. It was Leo Burnett. He launched into a monolog about how much he hated microphones, tape recorders and almost all other mechanical devices; how he was hard to understand-and wound up by say- ing that we could have the interview if we really thought we wanted it. Partly in order to overcome hiss dread of mikes, the Burnett people ran a special wire from the audio-visual part of the Burnett agency's office to a mike that we buried in a bowl of flowers on our luncheon table in the Mid- America Club, 24 floors above the agen- cy's offices. This helped put Leo at ease and resulted in one of the most interesting interviews AA has ever conducted. The full text ran in two in- stallments in the Oct. 23 and 30, 1967 issues of AA; it made good reading then and it is just as good today. Even in a business given to super- latives, the word "genius" isn't used a lot. But there would be no argument from anyone that knew the man that Leo Burnett was truly a genius. From New York to Leo Burnett There are a lot of advertising people in New York, Leo, who do things better here because of what you did, said' and stood' for from Chicago. Your love for, and pride in Chi- cago came across the miles real strong. And yet it never put down New York or any place else. You've left a big; indelible markk on the business you chose to pur- sue. You've left it in the quality of what you made happen, but even more in making so many of us re- alize that the reason~ it happened' is that you cared so much. Your pencil has been a fountain of understanding, humanness, en- couragement and inspiration. It' was obviously a direct line from your heart. Few men in any busi- ness have ever used' words so tell- ingly as conductors of the feeling, conviction and stimulation that make for high~ achievement. From the creative people you understood so well . . from all those in advertising who prize ex- cellence ... and from New York, your admiring neighbor-goodbye and God bless. from The Australian June 17, 1971 Leo Burnett- hard work was his motto Sydney-Leo Burnett, 79, founder of the advertising agency bearing his name, died at his home near Chicago last week. He was one of the giants of the advertising industry. His monument is an international network embracing Leo Burnett Co. Inc., LPE and Jackson Wain with 39 offices in 25 countries throughout thee world and billings of $U. S. 389 mil- lion ($A346 million). Country bred, his interests in adver- tising began with the writing of ads for his father's dry goods store in St. Johns, Michigan, a state famous for its apples. In 1935 he mortgaged his house, borrowed' on his insurance, and there- by raised $50,000 to start his own agency which he eventually built up to the largest outside New York City. Leo Burnett avoided glossy gim- mickry and sought the "simplicity and truth that lies in a productor company." It is said that he worked from dawn 'til after dark 364 days a year, but always took Christmas morning off. This was characteristic of his whole life and his tremendous capacity. He worked up to the time of his death and was still a director of the company, although he relinquished the chairman- ship in June 1967. from Japan, June 14, 1971 Dentsu Cables Tokyo-Dentsu President Tsunej!i Hibino cabled, "We were shocked to learn of Mr. Burnett's most untimely death and wish to express our deepest sympathy and condolences. The adver- tising world is the poorer for it." Sen6 Shimazaki, former Presidentt of Dentsu said: "It is with profound grief that I learn that Mr. Leo Burnett, one of the most respected advertising men in the world, has succumbed to his illness. "We expect and trust that your or- ganization will continue its brilliant achievements that were so typical of Mr. Burnett ever since the establish- ment of Leo Burnett Company. "It is my great regret that I am not able to come personally to pay my sincerest~ respects."

from Chicago Daily News, I une 9, 1971 Burnett built his agency on 'small town stuff' There is no way to capture in a few well-chosen words what Leo Burnett meant-and still means-to the adver- tising industry. I sat at the typewriter and tried to whip out some inspirational phrases about this adman who died Monday night. It was a foolish try. You can't top his own words: "I am often asked how I happened to get into this business. I didn't. The business got into me." If you want to know anything about Leo, take a look at the agency that bears his name. Even in its founder's death, Leo Burnett Co. with its 3,000 employes remains as the largest one- man ad agency in the world. From the Marlboro man to the Jolly Green Giant, from Allstate's good hands to United Air Lines' friendly skies, it's still Leo ... no matter who happened'to write the copy. Explaining his philosophy about ad- vertising several years ago, Leo saidt "We want consumers to say, 'That's a hell of a product,' instead of 'That's a hell of an ad.' We don't think it's corny to fall in love with a package of corn flakes, a fountain pen or a washing machine." At least for the time being, this phi- losophy still reigns at the agency. Look at a Burnettletterhead'. On the top of the sheet is the drawing of a hand reaching for the stars. It is another aspect of •Leo's philosophy: "When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either." Walk into any Burnett office in the country and there will be a bowl of fresh, red apples in the reception room, a constant reminder that what is the nation's fourth-largest agency opened it's doors during the Depression year of 1935. More than anyone else, Leo spoke up for the "Chicago schooli' of adver- tising. To him, New York advertising was "slick," and the West Coast's was 'bpportunistic." "Much New York advertising, as I observe it, is Johnny on the spot with the latest trends-the cool new sound in music, the hot new fashion inn women's wear and cosmetics, and the hippest, swingingest kind of language, man, "On the other hand, Chicago adver- tising is inclined to stick to the most! basic truths. We prefer mother's milk to the topless bathing suit. Now, this d'oesn't make us stick-in-the-muds, it simply gives us campaigns we can live by Joe Cappo with for a while and not get tired of seeing." Chicago youngbloods scoff at this kind of thinking. It is hokey, dull, small- town stuff. But it is the kind of think- ing that can build an agency's billings to nearly $400 million, at least twice as much as any other agency in town. That's only the money part. The same kind of thinking needles a 79-year-old into ignoring old' age's lin- gering illnesses to resume daily trips to his office-as Leo did last week. Now Leo's turn has come to die, and the Chicago advertising community is paying its respects. It damn well better. Without Leo Burnett there would be no Chicago school of advertising. In fact„there would be very little Chicago advertising at all. worked over copy until it passed from TIME magazine, his tough standards. His staff June 21 1971 sometimes called him Leo the , Lion-and not always affection- Leo the Lion He was a short, stout, balding, rumpled, plain-speaking man who viewed the world' through black- rimmed bifocals and generallyliked what he saw. He was, in brief, the antithesis of the popular concep- tion of the sleek, cynical advertising man. Yet when Leo Burnett'died at. 79 after a heart attack last week, he was one of the ad world's giants. Along with a handful of others- Bruce Barton, Albert Lasker and' Stanley Resor-Burnett was an American original who brought a distinctive viewpoint to the often imitative business of mass per- suasion. Love the Product. At his death, his Chicago-based Leo Burnett Co., Inc., was the world's fifth largest;, it handled billings of $389 million last year. It is by far the largestt agency west of the Hudson, and Burnett never felt the need'for the creative flash of Manhat'tan. "Ideas don't know where they are born," he said. His own ideas were based on keen appraisals of con- sumer wants and were often dis- armingly wrapped in homilies. His agency created the Pil'lsbury Doughboy, as well as the Marlboro Man,, the Jolly Green Giant, Star- Kist's Charlie the Tuna, Maytag's dependability campaigns, and the slogans, "You're in good hands with Allstate," "When you're outt of Schlitz, you're outof beer,"'and "Fly the friendly skies of United." A perfectionist, perpetually un- satisfied editor, Burnett was in- articulate on the podium but superb on paper. Armed with a stubby black pencil, his hands and shirt often smudged with lead, he ately. "I've seen him throw away campaigns that a client had ac- cepted just because he had come up with a better idea," says Leonard Matthews, the agency's president. Burnett championed' the "Chicago School of'~ Advertising." which ab- hors slick promotions. He once told his staff: "We want the con- sumer to say 'That's a hell of a product' instead of 'That's a hell of an ad,"' StarandApples. $urnett'started out lettering advertising signs for his father's dry goods store in St. Johns, Mich. He became a police reporter for the Peoria Journal, ltiter joined G.M. and rose to head Cadillac's ad department: In 1935 he borrowed against his insurance and mortgaged his house to get $50,000 to start his own agency. Legend has it that Burnett worked from before dawn until after dark 364 days a year-and took Christ- mas morning off. He had put in several hours at his desk on the day he died. In the gossamer realm of adver- tising, Burnett sometimes seemed too real to be real. His own slogan, printed on all agency stationery, was "Reaching for the Stars." In 25 countries around'the world, the agency's reception rooms always had big bowls of red apples-a small, folksy offering for all visi- tors. The unpretentiousness of Burnett's work may have provoked the scorn of some young admen, yet many in the agency field' con- tend that his influence was a majo"r force for reasonableness in ad- vertising. Says veteran adman Emerson Foote: "If there were more peopleJike Leo, there would' be no antiadwertising movement today."