The New Advertising (2)

on "DDB NEWS" February issue, 1971

A book: "The New Advertising: The Great Campaigns from Avis to Volkswagen"

On Ohrbach's ads

"Nevertheless, even the early Ohrbach's ads were oases in the bleak desert of retail advertising. They were involving; they had the quality of talking to the reader when most stores simply talked to themselves; they were lively, sometimes funny, and they could be read with pleasure all the way to the bottom of the page.
They created an image for the store that made it the quintessence of inexpensive chic for every woman in New York."

On EI AI ads

"Bernbach ... created a campaign so good that its first two ads revolutionized all airline advertising.... These two ads typify the agency's ability to set a tone with a campaign's first advertisement that other writers and art directors can expand on almost indefinitely, without resorting
to the uneasy imitation that has plagued other imaginative admakers ... when . others take over their work."

On Levy's ads

"They are early examples of Phyllis Robinson's ability to express in a phrase the essential qualities of a product ... In 1960 the first of Levy's famous subway posters appeared, with a slogan that came
to be one of the most famous in the advertising business: "You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's." ... What Doyle Dane Bernbach did for Levy's was to recognize that the bread had no discernible
characteristics that might set it off from its competitors ... Instead of claiming virtues where there were none, the agency gave Levy's a personality different from that of its competitors-most of which had no personalities at all-and made its name at least recognizable to New Yorkers, if not instantly and universally desirable.
This does not automatically ensure that the product will be a success-an agency has little control over
that-but without question it can be a great help."

On Avis ads

"Given the client, and working from the agency's theory that advertising can act as a tangible attribute of a product, (Helmut) Krone and Miss (Paula) Green began producing what has been called the
most unusual campaign-and the most important-of the 1960's ... There were shocked-even enraged-comments from other agencies and advertisers, to the effect that no one in his right mind could do ads like these, could sell his client short, as they felt these did, could blatantly proclaim that here was a company that was only Number 2 in its field ...
For many executives, renting from Avis became the 'in' thing, it showed your identification with the underdog, and perhaps even your appreciation of the ads."

Of course, there's much more to "The New Advertising" than these excerpts reveal.
Mr. Glatzer deals quite frankly with us and with other agencies and admakers.
He also answers the burning question, featured in the teaser ads, "Does Shirley Polykoff have a sexy mind?" (She doesn't.) If this revelation hasn't ruined the book for you, amble on down to the
Library for a peek at "The New Advertising" and our role in it.