According to the lecture series in which our tutors were
discussing their heroes and why they looked up to them as such, Clive presented
his hero, the highly prestigious company Doyle Dane Bernbach and its creators
that were responsible for revolutionizing advertising in the 50s and 60s.
This ad agency based in New York that brought about the
creative revolution in art direction and advertising. One of the founders was
Bill Bernbach, an American advertising executive and copywriter, a pioneer of
the subtle, low pressure advertising that became the hallmark of the agency he
helped found. He was the genius behind the development of a team of the “art
directors/ copywriter team as the key creators”.
Through the example of the Volkswagon ads that he used as
examples were we able to truly understand and appreciate the revolutionary
work.
In those days it was all about the ‘big American Dream’.
Bigger was better, in a time of big cars with huge tail fins. America was
prospering it was all about having to show their big lifestyles through it.
That’s what impressed the ladies and gave them a certain status (said the ads
of that time). Enter the Volkswagon. A German car which was seen to be ‘ugly,
noisy, underpowered, uncomfortable’ and the worst part was it was a small car
in the time of ‘Big’. As I understand many Americans were fighting their way to
Germany and so it was an even worse time for the Beetle.
This was the format of the ads that were produced to
campaign these big cars. In those times they followed a particular format that
was typical and out dated.
“Working in advertising before the creative revolution was
like being in an episode of Madmen. Art directors and copywriters worked to a
formula and didn’t meet up. In fact art directors and designers were called
commercial artists.”
The ‘Old JWT No. 1:’ formula that was followed before the
revolution that had to include:
A squared up image at the top.
A headline describing what was already seen in the image.
Three columns of text below that described already what the
headline had already said.
A big logo at bottom of the page.
And finally, a line at the bottom following the theme of the
‘American dream’.
These old ads not only followed a typical format, but what
they said was also a sort of lie. The cars were not affordable as more than
half of America was working class people who could not possible afford the car.
It was big, in a negative way as there was always an issue with parking and
caused problems in traffic and expensive to upkeep. In reality, only a small
group of financially sound people could actually afford it.
On the other hand, Volkswagon told the truth, plain and
simple. That is what revolutionized it as it was not at all the expected thing
by people so used to the ‘big American dream’ to the ad suggesting the complete
opposite focusing on its compact size and affordability. It sold to people the
idea of the affordable car, which was easy to keep, cheap to maintain, easy for
parking, and impressively good in adverse weather something that working class
people could afford.
Not only the message it portrayed, but the way it was done
was also quite different. They chucked the old format out and brought in a new
one. For example the volkwagon ‘think small’ ad used lots of white space, the
product advertised was miniscule; the headline lacked news value and worse of
all, it was black and white. However the ad created favourable publicity
because of its witty headlines and brilliantly written text underneath.
“You can say the right thing about the product and no one
will listen. You’ve got to say it in such a way that people will feel it in
their gut. Because if they don’t feel it, nothing will happen.”
Bernbach’s witty, charming and intelligent approach which
was to use simplicity before complexity made him the man who changed a way we
make ads.
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