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Feminist Movement

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The 1960s in America

Advertising

by Sherri Ward Massey

A means by which people learn about and are encouraged to buy products and services. Advertising, like the society that created it, exploded with self-expression in the 1960’s. This era is known for its creative appeal to the independent consumer, its sense of humor, and its superstar admakers.

Creative Revolution

In the 1960’s, the American advertising industry was undergoing a creative revolution largely shaped by the independent thought, self-expression, and human rights movements occurring in the culture that surrounded the industry. The healthy financial status of the United States and other countries combined with the attitudes of the time resulted in some memorable advertising. Suddenly, small agencies and creativity were more important than large agencies and the research-oriented, scientific approach of the past. The phrase “creative revolution” was not actually used until the mid-1960’s; however, advertising copywriters were picking up on the trends going on around them, targeting a variety of audiences, and looking for ways to sell the products produced by all the new companies that arose in the healthy economy. They were also producing more entertaining advertisements than those from years past. Some of the new brand names and products were Domino’s Pizza, Gatorade sports drink, McDonald’s Big Mac, and Nike shoes. The top three advertising agencies of the period were Leo Burnett in Chicago, Ogilvy and Mather in New York, and Doyle, Dane, Bernbach (DDB) in New York.

The advertising campaign considered the most successful and one of the most popular ever belonged to the German import car, the Volkswagen. The admakers at DDB took an unusual and humorous approach to promoting this little buglike automobile. Their print and broadcast advertisements focused on the size of the car and its value for the dollar. They emphasized the ease of getting parts and talked about the small insurance payments and how easy it was to park the car. Their print advertisements featured black-and-white photos in contrast to the bright colors of other car ads little text and no technical information. DDB wrote copy such as “Think small” and “It’s ugly, but it gets you there.” The latter slogan was accompanied by a photo of a lunar landing vehicle rather than the Volkswagen. DDB also led an innovative campaign for Avis, the car rental company. In the early 1960’s, Avis found itself falling rapidly behind leader Hertz. DDB proposed a campaign that had never been seen before one in which Avis admitted being ranked second in the industry. In another bold move, the creative team also focused on comparative advertising: “Avis is only number two in rental cars. So why go with us?” The answer: “We try harder.”

The Leo Burnett agency was responsible for the highly successful television and print campaigns for Marlboro cigarettes. The advertisements featured actual cowboys, not models, suggesting that people “Come to where the flavor is. Come to Marlboro Country.” The same agency launched a successful campaign for Kellogg’s Special K cereal.

David Ogilvy came to prominence with his promotions of the Shell Oil Company and, after merging with Mather and Crowther, as part of one of the world’s top ten agencies, Ogilvy and Mather. Ogilvy helped ensure a place in the market for Sears, Hathaway shirts, Schweppes, and Rolls Royce.

Diversity and Advertising

The roles of women and minorities in advertising were changing, but the revolution was slow. The housewife of the 1950’s was replaced by a woman who was sexy, sophisticated and who, although still primarily a housewife, sometimes chose to work outside the home. More women were being hired by agencies. DDB hired a number of women, including one of the most famous in the business, Mary Wells, who while working at Jack Tinker Partners produced a successful campaign for Alka-Seltzer: “No matter what shape your stomach is in.” The television spot featured jiggly stomachs and a hit jingle. Wells was also successful in her work on the Braniff International Airlines’ “Flying Colors” campaign. For the Braniff campaign, she employed the sex appeal of female flight attendants in Pucci outfits and airplanes painted in pastel colors. Wells started her own agency, Wells, Rich, and Greene, in 1966. She continued to create for Alka-Seltzer (“I can’t believe I ate the whole thing”) and for Benson and Hedges 100’s cigarettes. For the latter, the campaign focused on the “disadvantages” of smoking the extra-long cigarette: the ripping of a too-small pocket, a fire in a man’s beard, and getting caught in an elevator door.

During this time, as African Americans pushed forward with civil rights demonstrations, admakers followed the trend of Afrocentric looks in dress and behavior. Light-skinned African Americans who promoted products for hair straighteners, skin bleaches, and health care products in the 1950’s were replaced by darker-skinned African Americans wearing their hair in natural Afro styles and sometimes dressed in traditional African clothing. The newer advertisements, which appeared primarily in magazines that appealed to African Americans readers (such as Ebony), featured more traditional self-care products. The roles of African Americans as portrayed in advertisements also changed. Aunt Jemima’s “mammy” character took on a more modern look, slimming down and donning earrings. Lena Horne (Sanka coffee) and Bill Cosby (Jell-O gelatin) pitched products to people of all ethnic backgrounds. DDB created a series of advertisements featuring a variety of ethnic groups for Levy’s bread. The advertisements included African Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans, usually with the words, “You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s.” Agencies also began to recruit more minority employees, including Jews, Greeks, and Italians.

Memorable Campaigns

A number of memorable characters first appeared in the 1960’s. These included the Pillsbury Doughboy, Star-Kist’s Charlie the Tuna, Nine Lives’ Morris the Cat, and the Maytag washing machine repairman. Many of the slogans and songs of the 1960’s are either still used or at least remembered many years after they first appeared. The slogans include Kentucky Fried Chicken’s “finger-lickin’ good,” “You’ve come a long way, baby!” for Virginia Slims cigarettes, and “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” for Alka-Seltzer. An entire generation of baby boomers (born 1946-1964) grew up listening to the jingles for Oscar Mayer wieners and Armour hot dogs. The “black is beautiful” slogan of the Civil Rights movement became a common theme in advertisements.

The 1960’s also featured one of the most famous and controversial television commercials of all time. In 1964, the Democrats stirred talk with a spot created by DDB that aired only once. The advertisement was written for Lyndon B. Johnson during his presidential campaign. In the commercial, a little girl picked petals from a daisy juxtaposed against a nuclear countdown. The countdown ended in a nuclear explosion with a warning from Johnson that “The stakes are too high for you to stay at home.”

Impact

The 1960’s was a period of maturation for advertising, just as it was for society. The attention to minorities and women was not strong nor was it always accurate or realistic. However, the advertising industry did begin to reflect the interests of a diversified group of people more than it ever had before. The impact on society was that minorities and women responded to the advertising and began to demonstrate, especially in the years to follow, their buying power. They demanded and got more attention from advertisers. Advertising, while encouraging more consumption of goods and services, became a kind of icon of consumption itself.

Subsequent Events

By the early 1970’s, more women and minorities had begun to see themselves as individuals with choices regarding their lives. The advertisements that showed people as independent thinkers were becoming reality. By the mid-1970’s, admakers kept checklists to avoid sexist and racist remarks and overt stereotyping in their advertisements. One of the most successful campaigns ever, for Virginia Slims cigarettes, targeted women with its “You’ve come a long way, baby!” slogan, referring to the heightened acceptance of women smokers produced as a by-product of the women’s movement. When new advertising copywriters look for examples of creativity, many still turn to the 1960’s. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, the advertisers found themselves recycling 1960’s favorites to appeal to the same (now grown-up) audience of baby boomers. Oscar Mayer brought back the jingle, “My bologna has a first name, it’s O-S-C-A-R,” and Borden brought back Elsie the Cow for its dairy products. Even Volkswagen evoked the aura of the 1960’s in its successful ad campaign for the 1990’s version of the now-famous “bug.”

Additional Information

Most historical studies of advertising connect closely with studies of cultural and societal change. Some good references include Advertising in America: The First 200 Years (1990), by Charles Goodrum and Helen Dalrymple; Advertising in Contemporary Society: Perspectives Toward Understanding (1996), by Kim B. Rotzoll and James E. Haefner; and Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes: A Cultural History of American Advertising (1998), by Juliann Sivulka.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Massey, Sherri Ward. "Advertising." The 1960s in America, edited by Carl Singleton, Salem Press, 1999. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=1960_4030000322.
APA 7th
Massey, S. W. (1999). Advertising. In C. Singleton (Ed.), The 1960s in America. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Massey, Sherri Ward. "Advertising." Edited by Carl Singleton. The 1960s in America. Hackensack: Salem Press, 1999. Accessed December 14, 2025. online.salempress.com.