Behind The Scenes

The 1960s through the late 1980s have been characterized as the “Golden Age of Advertising.” It was a time of big ideas, three-martini lunches and larger-than-life personalities who graced both the society pages and the business columns.

Many call Ogilvy the “Father of Advertising.” A British native, he created his first ad agency in the U.S. having never worked in advertising. He’s credited with the quote, “The customer isn’t a moron, she’s your wife.” His agency, Ogilvy & Mather, went on to be one of the largest—and most respected—in the world.

DDB went on to produce legendary ads for Volkswagen and Avis. Legions of creative people still adhere to the “Bernbachian” philosophy of crafting ads.

Facebook started as a way for Harvard students to check each other out. It grew to be the most ubiquitous social media platform of the early 21st century.

This thing called the “World Wide Web” was no longer the playground of technogeeks. With the introduction of online services like Prodigy and America Online, suddenly everyone from schoolchildren doing homework to young moms seeking colic remedies were logging on to their (mostly) desktop computers.

Very few taglines express a brand’s truth – its reason for being, its driving purpose – quite as powerfully as Nike’s “Just Do It.”

Diamonds haven’t been rare commodities since 1870, but for a long time they were viewed as symbols of wealth, power, and decadent romantic dreams. Too precious and expensive a stone to afford if you weren’t part of the wealthy elite.

Mad Men premiered on AMC in 2007, thus reminding a world that otherwise may have forgotten about the peak of one of the flashiest and most lucrative industries.

Is love two straight white people? Is it two women? Is it two black fathers and their child? A better question, one answered by the tagline of the campaign, is why do we feel the need to label love at all?

“Great advertising holds up a mirror to who we are and where we’re going,” said Donny Deutsch shortly after a Cheerios commercial by Saatchi and Saatchi aired in 2013.

It was the first Spanish-language commercial ever broadcast in prime time on a major American network. It was also a powerful message of hope, using the simple joy of the game as its vehicle.

Back in the 1950’s, supermarkets were reluctant to stock the canned and packaged Caribbean foods produced by Goya Foods Inc. But Paula Green, president of Paula Green Advertising Inc., changed that.

When Ogilvy and Mather was tasked with evolving the credit card giant’s upscale image, the agency wisely cast Jerry Seinfeld in a series of ads for the American Express Green Card in 1992.

In October 1979, America discovered that all “Mean” Joe Greene needed after a hard game was a Coke to make him smile.

When Jay Chiat and Italian designer Gaetano Pesce set out to create a more collaborative creative workspace, the first ever “open office” in advertising was formed for Chiat/Day’s New York outpost. Just the thought of an open floor layout that nixed offices and assigned seating was enough to spark much debate.

Han·gry (ˈhaNGɡrē/) adjective/informal: Bad-tempered or irritable, as a result of hunger. Although this hybrid word may be relatively new, the sensation of hanger has been around since the dawn of time.

Strategize the rainbow, taste the rainbow. At first glance, one might think that these Skittle ads were just a product of the weirdest sh** the campaign team could fit into 30 second spots.

#LikeAGirl was to changed perceptions about what it means to be a girl, in a way that would feel engaging and inspire renewed confidence in young millennials.

Another agency-defining campaign for Wieden + Kennedy Portland was the 25-year partnership with ESPN’s Sportscenter. Together, they produced over 400 spots. Executed in a “deadpan documentary” style, many of the ads were very inside baseball (pun intended), meaning that they relied on knowledge of sports to understand the punchline.

Before he “switched to Sprint” Paul Marcarelli started his 10 year contract with Verizon as their test man in 2002.

Burger King released Subservient Chicken as a launch for their new chicken sandwich, taking the tagline “Chicken Your Way” to an all too literal place.

Upon founding Wells, Rich, Greene in 1966, Mary Wells Lawrence became the first woman to found, own, and run a major agency and the first female CEO of a company traded on the Big Board of the New York Stock Exchange.

After graduating from Barnard College, Phyllis Robinson had various copywriting jobs before securing a spot at Grey Advertising.