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Vote: | Advertising is, actually, a simple phenomenon in terms of economics. It is merely a substitute for a personal sales force - an extension, if you will, of the merchant who cries aloud his wares. |
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Vote: | No, sir, I'm not saying that charming, witty and warm copy won't sell. I'm just saying I've seen thousands of charming, witty campaigns that didn't sell. |
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Vote: | Unless a product becomes outmoded, a great campaign will not wear itself out. |
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Vote: | You must make the product interesting, not just make the ad different. And that's what too many of the copywriters in the U.S. today don't yet understand. |
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Biography
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Rosser Reeves (1910-1984) was an early pioneer of television advertising. Reeves was committed to making ads that were simple, direct, and often annoying. His most typical ad is probably that for Anacin, a headache medicine. The ad was considered grating and annoying by almost all viewers but it was remarkably successful, tripling the product's sales. Reeves did not believe ads should reassure, entertain, or educate, he argued they should exist only to communicate the slogan. In several works of advertising theory that he wrote he advocated a rigidly scientific approach shunning artistry and creativity.
His ads were focused around what he called the unique selling proposition, the one reason the product needed to be bought or was better than its competitors. These often took the form of slogans Reeves oversaw the introduction of dozens of slogans, some that still exist to this day, such as M&Ms melting in ones mouth but not in ones hands. He argued that advertising campaigns should be unchanging with a single slogan for each product. Reeves also insisted the product being sold be actually superior, and argued that no amount of advertising could move inferior goods. He also disagreed that advertising was able to create demand where it did not exist.
Reeves did not shy from questionable ethics, including using doctors to sell cigarettes.
Reeves is also notable for creating Eisenhower's presidential ads for the 1952 election. He packaged Eisenhower as a forthright, strong, yet friendly leader. The commercials all included a regular person asking a question to the upper right of the screen. They would cut to Eisenhower, not wearing glasses to look stronger, looking to the lower left and then turning to the camera and responding. They were created by letting Eisenhower speak for a number of hours. Then questions were crafted later that best fit his answers.
In the 1960s Reeves' techniques began to fail as consumers became more savvy and learnt to tune out uninteresting commercials. At age 55 Reeves retired from the advertising business. He declared that he had always planned to retire at that age, but many felt it was because of the decline in his methods.
Despite some decline in receptivity to Reeves' style of ads many companies still use his techniques when creating television commercials and his methods and ideas are taught in many marketing schools.
External links *Page on Rosser Reeves
*A collection of Reeve's Eisenhower ads
...(more on Wikipedia)
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Rosser Reeves".
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