Advertising: Reincarnation

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Foote's aim is to do more copywriting and creative work himself, attract new business by avoiding the humorously apologetic type of advertising now prevalent; he feels it is a passing industry fancy. "We're in a phase of self-consciousness," Foote says. "Too much attention is being focused on the agency rather than the product, as in the case of Doyle Dane Bernbach or Wells, Rich, Greene, or Carl Ally Inc. The best advertising is often inconspicuous—Campbell's Soup, Cutty Sark and especially Salem cigarettes." Foote also stresses honesty to the young staff he is assembling. A lot of people took Ogilvy & Mather's Rolls-Royce ad—the one claiming that at 60 m.p.h. the loudest noise is made by the clock—as an amusing put-on. Not Foote. "That claim simply isn't true," he says earnestly. "I've tested it myself." Foote also doubts that there is such a thing as "soft" whisky, and he adds, "There may be more Poles in New York City than Warsaw, but no one really knows whether or not they drink Rheingold beer."

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