1950s and 1960s Creative Advertising - OUCA401

Background

-40s – 50s art was influenced by pro and inter war movements.

-There was a new art form which was created by the Berlin Dada group. Dada acted against middle class respectability.

-Erwin Blumenfield was a photographer who worked with advertisers. He was similar to Dada in the sense that he also had an anti-rationalist stance.

-John Hegarty was influenced by Dada as he moved away from conventionalism.

- After the war, NY boomed – people very affluent – 1949 – 59 total advertising spend doubled from £5billion to £11billion. 

-The UK, however, was not as affluent. The Labour party had spent £8mn on the war which left the country poor and using ration books.

-TVs flourish - households with a TV increased from 10% 1950 to 90% 1960 – helped the advertising industry as gave a new medium.

Unpopular Advertising 

-In the 1950s, advertising had a ‘bad name’. This was due to factors including the belief that it was an unethical profession, the clients created the content and that it was too unregulated. Moreover, adverts tended to be unpopular e.g. Anacin adverts were boring and repetitive.

-Psychologists and creatives worked in agencies, but creatives worked more intuitively.

Fixing the Problems

-To try and tackle these problems, Rosser Reeves (chair of Ted Bates & Co) came up with a ‘formula’ to improve the advertisements. Consequently, Anacin generated more profit in 7yrs than Gone With The Wind did in 50 years.(Reeves inspired Mad  Men character Don Draper).

-David Oglivy also helped the advertising industry – he focused on research and had a constant theme of Englishness/ high-class throughout the adverts. His agency focused on rules and structure rather than creativity – clients such as Shell and the Lever Brothers approved of this.

-Bill Bernbach – caused the CREATIVE REVOLUTION -he got rid of the hierarchy in agencies (Account Executives, Copywriters and then Art Directors). He made Copywriters and Art Directors work as a team. He emphasised creativity and original ideas (different to Reeves strategy and Oglivy’s non-creative stance). In 1935, when Grover Whalen organised The New York World Fair (1939), Bernbach went with him.

-In 1940, Bernbach worked at Weintraub agency, alongside art director Paul Rand (as a team). Bernbach also worked at Grey agency, however after his letter of emphasising the need to work creatively got ignored by management, he started his own company called DDB.

-DDB incorporated parts from Reeves and Oglivy.



References
Workshop 5 - Creative Revolution 50s + 60s