Introduction

TV advertising is the most expensive platform for advertising. It has been a staple in promoting
products since the 1940s. When TV advertisements where first developed the advertisements aired
quickly started following certain conventions. The purpose of this report is to investigate the
thinkers who came up with theories that innovated on these original conventions and are still highly
relevant today. For the purpose of this assignment I will investigate Rosser Reeves, Leo Burnette,
David Ogilvy and Bill Birnbach.

Rosser Reeves
Rosser Reeves was born in 1910 in Danville, Virginia. He was employed in Ted Bates and Co. where
he spent most of his career. Reeves believed that TV advertisements should focus on the slogan for a
product and not educating the audience on why they should buy it – ‘the unique selling point’. This
was the foundation to his approach to advertising.

The Unique selling point is the reason that the viewer is told they should buy the product. It needs to
be unique to that product and not apply to any competitors. Must be compelling as possible to
convince viewers to buy. His theory is the foundation of advertisement as we know it today.

Example: Anacin

https://youtu.be/oeas5jtffpM

Advertisements were designed to be simple, direct and to slightly annoy the audience ie. A doctor
promoting smoking.


He also wrote several books such as ‘Reality in Advertising’ and ‘The 99 Critical Shots in Pool’.
Leo Burnette
Burnette started his career being a journalist for a newspaper in Peoria Illinois. He left journalism
and set up an advertising agency in the middle of the great depression. He believed that
advertisements should have what he called an ‘inherent drama’. (an image is created around a
product which makes it instantly recognisable i.e. Tony the Tiger for Kellogg’s Frosties). His
advertisements had a greater capability of connecting to the audience. The inherent drama is based
on the core values the product brings to the customer and tells a story that appeals to the customer
and convinces them to buy the product.

Part of Burnet’s design strategy was to design his campaigns with a homely theme that would fit in
in someone’s kitchen instead of the popular practice of the time of making the advertisements with
a sophisticated theme. His advertisements always focused on creating a sense of familiarity with the
audience.

In 1954 Burnett’s agency designed the Marlboro man for Marlboro cigarettes. This advertising
campaign used attributes that appealed to the American public of being a homely, rugged and
dependable character. The marketing campaign helped the company go from having a 1% market
share to being the most popular cigarette brand in America.
David Ogilvy
Early in Ogilvy’s career he was asked to write a manual on selling Aga Ovens. It was later praised by
Fortunes magazine to be the best sales manual ever written. Ogilvy went on to work in research and
advertising and in 1948 he set up his own advertising agency.

Ogilvy’s approach to making an advertising campaign was to have large amounts of research done
on the customer and the product itself as a crucial step in designing the campaign. These
advertisements would be written considering what the product did and who it was for. This is what
Ogilvy called positioning.

Ogilvy also focused on what he called the brand image. This is the personality of the brand in the
way it is presented to the audience. This was based on what design would most likely appeal to the
target audience.

An example of his work is the 60 miles per hour advertisement for Roles Royce. This advertising
campaign is Rolls Royce’s longest running one to date. The headline is designed to make the reader
think in an attempt to get them to read the rest of the article.

This advertisement is a result of Ogilvy’s methods of doing massive amounts of research on his
target audience and the car itself. He applied what made the car stand out and designed his
advertisement around the target audience which in this case was people who wanted a stylish car.
 You can still hear people use this quote today.

William Bernbach
William Bernbach’s main theory in advertising was to have his advertising constantly fresh and
original. For this reason he believed creative execution was the best way to communicate an
advertisement to the audience.

This went against Ogilvy’s theory which was that research was the most important factor in making
an advertising campaign and the creativity was done after. Bernbach also believed that successful
advertising campaigns where when the audience remembered both the brand and the product.

In 1949 he set up Doyle Dane Bernbach with Ned Doyle and Mac Dane. The agency employed people
who made advertisements to work together with the people who designed them. This went against
the industry standard where they would never even meet. He was also known to employ creative
minded people in positions that would usually be given to business minded people.

One of Bernbach’s most successful campaigns was the ‘Think Small ‘advertisements for Volkswagen.
In an industry that most car manufacturers aimed to sell big cars, Bernbach’s advertisements did the
opposite in a simple, clever eye catching way.
Conclusion
The thinkers I have written about on this report have undoubtedly laid the foundations for the
methods applied in TV advertising today. Their work has not only had a significant influence on
western culture but remains to be common in advertising today.

I believe that the most relevant thinker was Leo Burnette. This is because research is central to every
advertisement made today. Despite this I also believe that William Bernbach was the most
successful of the thinkers because his advertisements stood out the most while promoting the
product very effectively.

Advertising now makes extensive use of advancements in technology, but I believe that the theory
behind it has not evolved to the extent that it did in the 40s and 50s.
Rosser Reeves

Article on Rosser Reeves- https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/history-advertising-no-120-rosser-

reeves-reality-advertising/1332193

Rosser Reeves Biography- https://adage.com/article/adage-encyclopedia/reeves-rosser-1910-

1984/98848

Rosser Reeves Eisenhower Presidential Advertisement- https://youtu.be/eoHZFcItwPk

Leo Burnette

Leo Burnette Biography- https://biography.yourdictionary.com/leo-burnett

Leo Burnette Biography 2- https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/social-sciences-and-

law/business-leaders/leo-burnett

Leo Burnette company website- https://leoburnett.com/

Leo Burnette Speech- https://youtu.be/htAMJSX8S54

David Ogilvy

Article on David Ogilvy - https://www.copyblogger.com/lessons-from-david-ogilvy/

David Ogilvy Biography- https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/david-ogilvy-184.php

David Ogilvy Biography 2- https://biography.yourdictionary.com/david-mackenzie-ogilvy

David Ogilvy Techniques and Conventions- https://postcron.com/en/blog/david-ogilvy-7-

commandments-advertising-marketers-need-know/

William Birnbach

Article about Birnbach and his theories- https://www.commarts.com/features/doyle-dane-bernbach

Birnbach Biography- https://biography.yourdictionary.com/william-bernbach

Birnbach Interview- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUs5-3Y6vxM