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BREEZY Robert Mondell Ganger, 59, chairman of D'Arcy Advertising of Manhattan and St. Louis, was hardened in the competitive fires of manufacturing in the early 1950s when, as president of P. Lorillard Co., he was instrumental in launching Kent cigarettes. As a result, he has scant patience with the pseudo-academic theorizing of some admen, instead talks to businessmen in their own lingo: "The objective of advertising has always been to sell goods at a profit." A handy man with a trombone, Ganger (rhymes with hanger) paid his way through Ohio State ('26) by playing in campus dance bands, joined the Geyer ad agency fresh out of college. His work on a campaign for Embassy cigarettes brought him to the attention of Lorillard—where he spent three years before resigning "for reasons of health." When he was invited to take charge at D'Arcy in 1953, Ganger walked into a disaster: loss of the $10 million-a-year Coca-Cola account. But in a vigorous drive for new business, Ganger signed up Royal Crown Cola, has recently won Wildroot, Knox Gelatine and Plaid Stamps. With billings up to $87 million last year, Ganger beams: "We've nearly doubled our business in the past five years—and you don't do that by luck."
LITTLE: The Big Account
CURLED like a benign bear behind his desk in Detroit's General Motors Bldg., Henry Guy Little, 60, the 212-lb. chairman of Campbell-Ewald Co., masterminds the biggest single advertising account in the world: $60 million a year from Chevrolet. It is hard to tell where Chevrolet leaves off and Campbell-Ewald begins. Only a floor separates their offices, and "Ted" Little is in on much of Chevrolet's market planning; it was he who named the Chevy II. Bent on an advertising career ever since his teen-age days in Los Angeles, Little bypassed college to go to work as a copy boy for Lord & Thomas, and learned the advertising craft from Albert Lasker. Signed up by Campbell-Ewald during World War II, he has headed the agency for the past decade, increased its billings 350% to last year's $87 million. He leans to simple ads with somewhat corny slogans ("Swissair Swisscare"), and his personal tastes are plain. He likes to chase fire engines and listen to his vast collection of recorded noises of railroad locomotives.
CUNNINGHAM: The Voice of Conscience