Read Online The Real Mad Men by Andrew Cracknell - Free Book Online
Authors: Andrew Cracknell
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Director of Doyle Dane Bernbach since the day it opened its doorsâ. In a business noted for noisy egos and monstrous self-satisfaction, this was almost bashful; such quiet modesty meant he was incapable of producing the loud, chest-beating advertising work of a Rosser Reeves.
Gageâs other quality was that he was simply a thoroughly good man. In a particularly crucial quote, from the Art Directors Hall of Fame, about the criteria for employment at DDB, a quote that tells us not just aboutGage, but also about Bernbach and the whole ethos of the agency, Bernbach said, âYou have to be nice and you have to be talented. If youâre nice, but untalented, we donât need you. If youâre talented, but a bastard, we donât need you. No one exemplifies the nice and the talented better than Bob Gage.â
As Gage said, the agencyâs creative solutions were derived directly from cold facts about the product itself. But that was just the start. His achievement, initially with Robinson and Bernbach and then with a succession of later DDB writers, was in warming and moulding those âcold factsâ into a body of work of genuine warmth and emotion. The simple humane charm in the stream of work moved reader after reader, viewer after viewer with an emotional impact transcending anything necessary for the purely utilitarian purpose of advertising.
The sheer vivacity and freshness in the work they started to produce reflected the childlike euphoria in the first few years of the agency. Phyllis Robinson later said, âWe all had, including Bill, the feeling that we were let out of school â you know, no more teachers, no more books⦠a tremendous feeling of freedom, just for starters.â
Behind every famous campaign thereâs usually an open-minded client, deserving recognition at least for judgment, taste and, quite often, bravery. The easy, comfortable solution is to do what youâve done before, what everyone else is doing; the far-sighted client knows this is the worst solution. Nathan Ohrbach was one such client.
Encouraging and applauding his advertising teams to come up with fresh and original thinking, it showed in his choice of agency; heâd employed Weintraub in the mid forties, then moved the account to Grey when Bernbach started doing interesting work there. Finally, like a commercial Medici, he encouraged and backed the breakaway. It paid off. His business grew, enabling expansion into suburban New York, Newark, Los Angeles and elsewhere.
OHRBACHâS ADVERTISING already had some fame around town as one of the more noticeable and radical pieces of retail work, and this was boosted early in the agencyâs life by the ad that one could argue marked the start of the Creative Revolution. To todayâs sensibilities it may seem patronising and condescending, but those were different times and it gained attention through its very playfulness.
Ohrbachâs advertising created by DDB in the late 1950s.
A man is carrying a grinning woman under his arm, flat like a cardboard cutout, with the headline âLiberal Trade-in. Bring in your wife and just a few dollars⦠and weâll give you a new womanâ.
The idea was Bernbachâs â described by Gage as âthe most visual copywriter I ever worked withâ â but the copy was left to Phyllis Robinson to write. (Bill was now mostly concerned with ideas and headlines, others could do the âwiggly bitsâ, the actual body copy.)
The message of the ad is loud and clear: new fashionable clothes a complete makeover at bargain prices. But the novelty was in the way it was said, a key DDB attribute, playing with the notion of advertising by borrowing language from elsewhere â auto sales for example â and applying it here to your wife. Intriguing and entertaining the reader, but all the while selling.
In the same year, 1952, the headline âIf you are over or under 35â¦
Gageâs other quality was that he was simply a thoroughly good man. In a particularly crucial quote, from the Art Directors Hall of Fame, about the criteria for employment at DDB, a quote that tells us not just aboutGage, but also about Bernbach and the whole ethos of the agency, Bernbach said, âYou have to be nice and you have to be talented. If youâre nice, but untalented, we donât need you. If youâre talented, but a bastard, we donât need you. No one exemplifies the nice and the talented better than Bob Gage.â
As Gage said, the agencyâs creative solutions were derived directly from cold facts about the product itself. But that was just the start. His achievement, initially with Robinson and Bernbach and then with a succession of later DDB writers, was in warming and moulding those âcold factsâ into a body of work of genuine warmth and emotion. The simple humane charm in the stream of work moved reader after reader, viewer after viewer with an emotional impact transcending anything necessary for the purely utilitarian purpose of advertising.
The sheer vivacity and freshness in the work they started to produce reflected the childlike euphoria in the first few years of the agency. Phyllis Robinson later said, âWe all had, including Bill, the feeling that we were let out of school â you know, no more teachers, no more books⦠a tremendous feeling of freedom, just for starters.â
Behind every famous campaign thereâs usually an open-minded client, deserving recognition at least for judgment, taste and, quite often, bravery. The easy, comfortable solution is to do what youâve done before, what everyone else is doing; the far-sighted client knows this is the worst solution. Nathan Ohrbach was one such client.
Encouraging and applauding his advertising teams to come up with fresh and original thinking, it showed in his choice of agency; heâd employed Weintraub in the mid forties, then moved the account to Grey when Bernbach started doing interesting work there. Finally, like a commercial Medici, he encouraged and backed the breakaway. It paid off. His business grew, enabling expansion into suburban New York, Newark, Los Angeles and elsewhere.
OHRBACHâS ADVERTISING already had some fame around town as one of the more noticeable and radical pieces of retail work, and this was boosted early in the agencyâs life by the ad that one could argue marked the start of the Creative Revolution. To todayâs sensibilities it may seem patronising and condescending, but those were different times and it gained attention through its very playfulness.
Ohrbachâs advertising created by DDB in the late 1950s.
A man is carrying a grinning woman under his arm, flat like a cardboard cutout, with the headline âLiberal Trade-in. Bring in your wife and just a few dollars⦠and weâll give you a new womanâ.
The idea was Bernbachâs â described by Gage as âthe most visual copywriter I ever worked withâ â but the copy was left to Phyllis Robinson to write. (Bill was now mostly concerned with ideas and headlines, others could do the âwiggly bitsâ, the actual body copy.)
The message of the ad is loud and clear: new fashionable clothes a complete makeover at bargain prices. But the novelty was in the way it was said, a key DDB attribute, playing with the notion of advertising by borrowing language from elsewhere â auto sales for example â and applying it here to your wife. Intriguing and entertaining the reader, but all the while selling.
In the same year, 1952, the headline âIf you are over or under 35â¦
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