The grand old man of U.S. advertising, Stanley Burnet Resor, 81, stepped down last week after 44 years as chief executive officer of J. Walter Thompson Co., the biggest advertising agency in the world.
When Resor, who headed Thompson's Cincinnati office, bought out Commodore J. Walter Thompson in 1916, the agency's billings were $3,000,000. Last year they totaled $328 million. Resor pioneered in market research, required copywriters to know almost as much about a product as the manufacturer, and shied away from gimmicky ads. With the help of Resor's wife Helen, Thompson was among the first ad agencies to hire women...
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