Leo Burnett: The Advertising Master Who Made Marlboro Achievements

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, a bright star emerged in the American advertising industry - Leo Burnett. He was a representative figure of the advertising innovation revolution in the United States in the 1960s. The American advertising industry has won worldwide honor and respect. , The master Leo Burnett has a bloated body and an unspectacular appearance. He can hardly reflect the image of an "advertising man", but his creativity is very eye-catching and will be unforgettable for a long time at a glance. He created many influential brand images, such as Green Giant Jolly, Fried Bread Man Pillsbury, Tuna Charlie and Tony the Tiger, etc., but the most successful, classic, and most well-known and praised advertisement is the Marlboro advertisement. It can be said that Marlboro became famous all over the world because of Leo Burnett's creative promotion, and Leo Burnett also became famous because of Marlboro advertising, becoming a master admired by every advertising person. , Advertising Genius, On October 21, 1891, Leo Burnett was born in St. John's, Michigan. His father owned a textile store, and he worked in his father's store as a handyman from an early age. , It was his father who led Leo Burnett into the world of advertising for the first time. "After dinner, I lay on my father's back and looked over his shoulder. A large piece of white paper was spread out on the dining table, and he used a yardstick and a big black pencil to write the posters that would be used in the store." . That was the first time Leo Burnett saw the big black pencil numbered Alpha 245. He loved to use it throughout his life, and the company still uses this pencil today. , Little Leo helped his father's store write slogans for posters. After school on weekends, he also tried to help his father stand at the counter, but he didn't like being a store clerk, so his father allowed him to go to the town to work. He was 12 years old at the time and working at a small newspaper called the Clinton Democrat, cleaning printing cylinders. He soon became familiar with machine operation, typesetting, and most of the chores of a printing press. Later, he was promoted to a text reporter. One of his tasks was to go to the train station to wait for the incoming train, and chat with the townspeople who were about to leave their hometown or just returned to their hometown to obtain news. His weekly salary was 3 US dollars. , Leo’s high school life was not very pleasant. He described himself as a "pimple-ridden kid who tried to hide it. Although I did well in school, I was not very physically strong and I tried to avoid most social and extracurricular activities." However, a distinguished guest who came to the school to give a speech, Woogie Nathan Ferris, completely changed him. "The essence of Ferris's speech is: There will always be some difficult moments in life. At this moment, you must wake up, cheer up, and start again. You may be better than you think." Leo Burnett wrote, "I I felt that these words were exactly speaking to me, and I had an epiphany like waking up from a dream. I felt that I began to have energy again and was full of interest in the things around me." Leo began to draw charcoal sketches and watercolors. Draw colorful posters for campus events. He even participated in inter-school competitions, won many honors for the school, and was elected as the president of the student union. , Leo Burnett originally planned to study at the University of Michigan in 1909, but due to his father's difficulties in business, he had to change his original plan. In order to save money to go to college, he started teaching in a middle school in a neighboring town. , In the fall of 1910, Leo Burnett entered the University of Michigan as he wished. In addition to completing credits including Latin, German, rhetoric, history and architectural drawing, Leo also worked in the restaurant and helped the professor tidy up the courtyard to earn fees. Later, he found a job writing window posters for Merck's, the largest department store in town. At the same time, Leo also devoted himself to campus literature and art, becoming the editor of "Michigan Celebrity Yearbook", "Odd Fellows Monthly", "Daily" and the author of "Colored Window". He also found time in his busy schedule to design large-scale color posters for the school theater's opera. , Forced to start a business, In the spring of 1914, Leo Burnett graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Arts degree. The summer after graduation, Leo Burnett helped edit the school newspaper and hoped to find a reporter's job at the New York World. The next year, however, he found a job as a reporter at the Peoria News in Illinois, earning $18 a week. , Relying on meager remuneration, Leo lived frugally. He spent 15 cents on breakfast, 25 cents on lunch, and 35 cents on dinner every day. In order to earn more royalties, he began to publish a column on "Railway Development" in other newspapers under the signature of "Leo N. Burnett", twice a week.

At the same time, he also began to pay attention to the auto industry coverage that was launched a year ago, and the coverage expanded from a small weekly column to a full-page special report. , At that time, the American automobile industry was booming, and large and small car factories were established one after another and expanded rapidly. Leo couldn't resist this craze and decided to join the automobile industry. In the spring of 1915, when he learned that his old classmate Winters was working at Paccar Motors in Detroit, his determination to join the automobile industry was strengthened. At Winters' suggestion, he resigned and went to Detroit, where he got his wish and entered the Cadillac Motor Company. He was mainly responsible for editing the "Cadillac Intelligence Magazine" magazine. His salary was initially $25 a week, which soon increased to $40. , Cadillac Motor Company became Leo Burnett's advertising school, and those days were something he would never forget. At that time, advertising guru Mark Manas, who advocated that advertisements should resonate with consumers, was responsible for all Cadillac copywriting. The "Price of Leadership" he designed for Cadillac was a sensation. In order to have a deeper understanding of advertising, Leo read all advertising professional publications, cut out large and small newspaper advertisements and discussion topics related to advertising, and participated in many advertising clubs. This period became a turning point for him to enter the advertising industry. , In the early 1920s, Leo Burnett moved to Indianapolis and became the advertising manager of the Lafitte Motor Company. From 1923 to 1930, he served as the senior creative director of Indianapolis' leading Homar Mack advertising agency. Finally, he came to Chicago and served as the deputy creative director of Russian Wenxi Advertising Agency. Russian Wenxi was one of the largest advertising companies in the world at that time. However, due to various reasons, especially the boss's indifference to the advertising industry, starting from the end of 1931, the company's major clients terminated their contracts one after another. Soon, Russian Wenxi Company disappeared from the advertising world. , After leaving the Russian company, some of his original clients suggested that Leo Burnett should open his own company. Although Leo was very reluctant, he finally raised $50,000 by mortgaging his house and founded Leo Burnett Co., Ltd. on August 5, 1935. , Rising rapidly in the advertising industry, as soon as the news of Leo Burnett's establishment of the company came out, it immediately attracted 5 working partners and 3 clients who greatly appreciated Leo Burnett's talents to join the lineup, including Hulk Nachos Manufacturer etc. , After the company was established, the first thing Leo Burnett did was to buy a large farm by Lake Zurich. This was due to his nature of loving nature. In the same year, the company created the trademark "Reaching for the Stars", with a total of six large and small stars on the green "Reaching for the Stars" image. The idea for the entire graphic comes from Leo Burnett's famous entrepreneurial belief: "Be a man who reaches for the stars" - determined to work hard and eager to surpass other advertising companies. , The first year was very difficult, although Leo Burnett firmly believed that through hard work there would be a day when he would succeed. They took on the Hershey chocolate commercial, and the product was good, but they didn't do much advertising. Leo and his work partner Jack are confident that they can make Hershey popular through high-quality advertising cases. However, the ad failed. Leo summed up his experience and redesigned the advertisement for Wrigley chewing gum, but he still didn't make any money. Next, another major customer of the company, the Minnesota Watershed Canning Company, suffered from poor pea harvest due to long-term drought, and the advertising budget was also reduced. The future looks bleak for Leo Burnett. , After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Leo decided to focus on the War Propaganda Committee, and his first action was to voluntarily collect scrap metal. Due to his outstanding contributions, Leo was invited by the War Production Board in Washington to serve as minister. In 1945, Leo was awarded a commendation for his outstanding performance during the war. , Soon after, Leo Burnett suffered a heart attack, and although this was sad news for the company, he launched his famous "Farm Meeting." Every weekend, he convened account managers, art directors and writers to learn about the company's latest business decisions. This tradition continued for many years. , In this way, we stumbled into 1945. Leo Burnett designed a print advertisement for the American Meat Institute: against a red background, there are two pieces of tender red meat. Such a design was unbelievable at the time and even seemed tasteless. Leo Burnett thought over and over that the image of meat should give people a strong sense of sexual desire, so he used a full-page advertisement to describe thick strips of raw red meat on a bright red background.

Breaking free from scruples, “red on red” is the highlight. He explained, "This is a very natural thing. It just explains the concept of red very well and tells something else we want to express. This is the purest form of inherent drama." As a result, the red background sets off the fresh meat It has to be more fresh and tender, and Americans can't resist the temptation and want to eat more. Master Achievement Advertisement