Thursday, October 17, 2024

16810: Musing, Mulling, And Munching On Mickey D’s And More.

 

Muse by Clios interviewed DDB Worldwide Chairman Emeritus Keith Reinhard, who shared his thoughts on the state of creativity, challenges past and present, iconic campaigns, client-agency relationships, and more.

 

Covering his 50+ years in Adland, Reinhard also wondered “if today’s advertising industry might be well advised to embrace or re-embrace generational inclusion along with the commitment to gender and racial diversity.”

 

Not surprisingly, racial and ethnic equality received less attention than the Hamburglar—and the alleged diversity dilemma of ageism against Old White Guys and Old White Gals emerged as an imperative.

 

In Adland, You Deserve A Break Today does not apply to people of color.

 

Keith Reinhard on Creativity, Agency-Client Bonds and the Hamburglar

Looking back, and mulling what’s ahead

 

By Amy Corr

 

Keith Reinhard serves as chairman emeritus of DDB Worldwide. In a career spanning more than half a century, he has worked as a writer, art director and creative group head, and held key roles in agency management.

 

Transcending the Mad Men paradigm, Reinhard has shaped consumer tastes and stoked the engines of media and commerce on a global scale.

 

He’s father to the Hamburglar, and along with his creative team birthed McDonald’s brand-defining “You Deserve a Break Today” campaigns in the 1970s, plus the unforgettable “Two-all-beef-patties-special-sauce-lettuce-cheese-pickles-onions, on a sesame seed bun” mantra woven into copy and jingles. “Just Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm Is There” was his idea, too. Keith also worked on Volkswagen, Polaroid, Amtrak, Xerox, Mars and General Mills, to name just a few. On the business side, Reinhard helped merge Doyle Dane Bernbach and Needham Harper Worldwide into the DDB network, which he led as chairman and CEO for 16 years.

 

We spoke with Reinhard about the challenges plaguing the industry today, the importance of agency-client trust, his favorite campaigns and the return of his beloved Hamburglar.

 

Muse: What’s your take on the state of creativity today and the trust between an agency and client?

 

Keith Reinhard: I’m sure it varies from those clients who see their agencies only as interchangeable suppliers chosen for the lowest price, to clients who value their agencies as trusted partners. It was encouraging to see some examples of the latter on stage at the Clios this year. In the long term, the only clients that will value their agencies as long-term partners are clients who understand the value of long-term brand building. I doubt that such clients represent the majority of advertisers today. In part, that’s because we have failed to make a convincing case for the value of building brand loyalty over time, which has always been a brand’s best defense against price competition.

 

As for the state of creativity in general, the fragmentation of media channels makes it difficult to establish and maintain brand integrity and instead, encourages one-off messages hastily prepared on a low budget, subjected to instant A/B testing, and placed by algorithms as interrupters on every available social media channel. While that seems like a condition more conducive to mindless repetition of breathless product claims than to brand building, there are notable exceptions. One of my favorites is DDB’s award winning apology campaign for Skittles—a prime example of contemporary creativity at its best. The brilliant multi-channel idea is absolutely on-brand and true to Skittles idiosyncratic personality. During a “press conference” on Twitch and TikTok, a Skittles “communications director” apologizes individually to thousands of protesters for replacing the lime-flavored green Skittles with a green apple flavor thirteen years ago. He promises to restore the lime flavor, at least for a while. The social media campaign was augmented by other media including a huge sign in Times Square where Skittles apologized to individual tweets.

 

I’ve also been impressed by Sakara Life, the plant-based food delivery service founded by two young women in 2011 that is now a $150 million powerhouse. They’ve given their brand a clear purpose with a distinctive brand personality that connects with viewers with advice like “make love, not dinner.”

 

I believe the level of creativity will rise in the future as young creators and their clients begin to realize the difference between a click and an emotional connection, the difference between creating a buzz and creating a brand, the difference between a one-off stunt and an enduring brand story and the big difference between big data and a big idea.

 

As for the state of creativity in television, I didn’t see any Super Bowl commercials I wished I had done. But then again, I’m not the target audience. At least the Rabbit Hole commercial for Tubi used storytelling to get my attention, built suspense and then paid off with a promise of free movies. All without borrowing interest from a celebrity. That in itself was refreshing.

 

What were some agency/client trust/bonds you experienced in your career?

 

When Tom Morrill, State Farm’s chief marketing officer in the ’60s and ’70s, was asked if he’d ever consider a new agency, he said he would not. Instead, he said if he needed fresh thinking, he would ask us for new ideas or even new people. But he had no interest in going through a search process or acclimating a new agency to the insurance business that we, his trusted longtime agency partner, knew so well. Tom’s confidence in us laid the groundwork for a relationship that lasted for more than 60 years.

 

To shake things up in the Washington-Baltimore market, Fred Turner, CEO of McDonald’s, once granted us the freedom to try any new idea we wanted if we stayed within the budget and didn’t do anything illegal. Turner startled us by saying, “Don’t bother to show me storyboards. I trust you. Just show me the finished work.” This level of trust motivated us to work even harder to deliver a remarkable product, which we did. Fred liked it and ran it with success.

 

A strong bond of trust with Anheuser-Busch figured importantly in that great client supporting the offbeat, off brand “Wassup” campaign for Budweiser, which August Busch IV said brought more value to the brand than any other single idea in the brewery’s history. It won the Grand Prix in Cannes in 2000.

 

What’s the biggest challenge facing the industry today and how can it be overcome?

 

It might be the lack of time. The time to think, time to shape an idea and let it grow, time to let it work in the marketplace, time to work together, time to care, time to rest and reflect. I have no idea how to overcome our obsession with speed.

 

What was the biggest challenge you faced in your career?

 

By far the biggest challenge I faced was merging two creative agency networks into one in the mid-eighties. I was CEO of Needham Harper Worldwide but my idol was Bill Bernbach, who had revolutionized the industry when he founded Doyle Dane Bernbach in 1949. After Bill died in 1982, my dream was to combine his agency with Needham to establish a new global creative force built on Bill’s legacy. As part of the creation of Omnicom, we found a way to do this but as an observer wrote in the New York Times after our announcement, “Mergers are hell!” I understood what he meant as we started to put the agencies together. Turf battles had to be resolved in major markets, client conflicts had to be dealt with and differing systems had to be integrated. But thanks to the resolve of a top management team that shared a vision, we were able to create a common culture grounded in a shared belief that creativity is the most powerful force in business.

 

What’s something that exists now that you wish existed earlier in your career or you’re happy it didn’t exist earlier on?

 

Google could have helped us earlier. Back then, finding answers to questions took a lot more time.

 

On the other hand, I’m glad we didn’t have the science and technology that today claims to instantly determine an ad’s effectiveness. As Bill Bernbach said: “However much we would like advertising to be a science, the fact is that it is not. It is a subtle, ever-changing art, defying formularization, flowering on freshness and withering on imitation.” Today’s instant A/B testing makes it impossible for a good campaign to “wear in” and would almost certainly have killed Volkswagen’s game changing “Think Small” campaign which, when launched, was met by skepticism from both consumers and dealers.

 

What were some of your favorite campaigns to work on?

 

There are so many—Volkswagen, Polaroid, Amtrak, Xerox, Mars, General Mills. But I’ll highlight three.

 

McDonald’s was a great client. They understood the value of making emotional connections with their customers. In 1971, we created their first national advertising campaign by focusing on the McDonald’s experience instead of just their hamburgers. Our kick-off campaign, “You Deserve a Break Today,” encouraged people to take a little respite from their daily routines and enjoy the food, folks, and fun at McDonald’s. We followed the initial campaign with another customer focused effort, “You, you’re the one,” which also made it into the Madison Avenue Songbook. The Big Mac jingle, “Two all-beef-patties-special-sauce-lettuce- cheese-pickles-onions-on-a-sesame-seed bun,” created by my team in the ’70s, is still remembered today. While I personally gave birth to the Hamburglar, working with the team to create McDonaldland, home of the Grimace and all the other characters, was truly a blast.

 

I also loved working on all the Anheuser-Busch brands starting with “Head for the Mountains” for Busch Beer and then all the work we did for Bud Light and Budweiser. As with McDonald’s, great advertising is only possible when you have great clients. Anheuser-Busch was one of the best. They proved that big time when they bought and supported the aforementioned “Wassup” campaign for Budweiser, a campaign that went viral before we knew what viral even meant and won the Gran Prix at Cannes in 2000.

 

State Farm was one of my favorites. In the ’70s, new research pointed out that State Farm’s most important competitive advantage was the fact that their agents had their offices in neighborhoods where people lived, in contrast to competitor companies who often housed their agents in big buildings in a business district. This insight led to our creating a long running campaign, “Just Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is There.” We contracted Barry Manilow to write the tune to which we wrote three verses—one for car insurance, one for home insurance and another for life insurance. The jingle is no longer used but I’m pleased that “Jake from State Farm” is still using our tag line.

 

As the person behind the Hamburglar, are you excited to see his resurrection in ad campaigns?

 

As the father of the little burger bandit, I’m pleased to see he’s up to his old tricks and still getting by with a limited vocabulary. Robble.

 

What “Mad Men” experience can you share with us?

 

Things were different back then. In the early ’70s, I was head of the creative department at the Needham agency in Chicago, and I noticed that a young woman had joined us as a trainee in the account executive department. I wasn’t directly involved in her accounts, so I had never met her. But I remember thinking it was good that we were finally going to see at least one woman become an account executive. Then one night when I was working late, this young woman burst into my office and breathlessly asked if she could hide under my desk!  I said “Uh, yeah, I guess so, but why are you hiding?” She named a figure in agency management and said, “I think he’s been drinking, and he’s chasing me down the halls!” This promising young trainee hung out in my office until we could assure her that the halls were clear. She then went on to become the agency’s youngest senior vice president, heading up accounts like General Mills and McDonald’s. A few years later, the amazing Rose-Lee Simons, became my amazing wife.

 

Anything else you’d like to discuss?

 

In a recent meeting, Vincent Gardner, composer and lead trombonist for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, was asked by a young musician how to become great. Gardner advised the young man to “seek out the oldest person you can find who’s doing what you want to do. Tapping into that person’s experience will be the very best way you can become great.”

 

Gardner’s counsel made me wonder if today’s advertising industry might be well advised to embrace or re-embrace generational inclusion along with the commitment to gender and racial diversity. As a young copywriter, I learned a lot from mentors who were in their forties and fifties. Yet, as of a few years ago, an IPA Excellence paper stated that staffers over the age of 50 represent only 6 percent of ad land’s workforce. By comparison, 22 percent of professionals in finance were over 50 and a Writer’s Guild survey showed 50 to be the median age of Hollywood screenwriters. When last I checked, consultants range in age from 40 to 60 which may be why they have the kind of access to clients’ C-suites that is often denied to ad agencies. Does it matter that today’s advertising industry, unlike other professions, undervalues experience? I think it might.

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

16809: There’s A New Clown In Town.

Former President Donald Trump reportedly plans to visit a Mickey D’s in Philadelphia and work the “fry cooker” as a campaign stunt. Well, it’s not the first time Trump has displayed enthusiasm for the Golden Arches—although he hasn’t shown a QSR preference before.

 

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

16808: Belated Indigenous Peoples’ Day Thought.

 

Just realized another reason for the abject lack of commemorative campaigns celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Most—if not all—White advertising agencies don’t have an Indigenous ERG; hence, such diversity duties cannot be delegated.

 

If any White advertising agency does have an Indigenous ERG, well, it’s gotta be one lonely teepee.

16807: Happy Belated Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

 

What’s most outrageous about the lack of advertisements celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day? Shutterstock offered 476 royalty-free images suitable for patronizing propaganda. It appears there were no takers in Adland.

Monday, October 14, 2024

16806: Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day From Adland.

 

In Adland, Indigenous Peoples’ Day is essentially just another Monday—or the end of a holiday weekend for White advertising agencies acknowledging the occasion.

 

Yet unlike other special days, there are virtually no commemorative campaigns. No Land O’Lakes limited edition packages. No replica jerseys for the Washington Commanders or Cleveland Guardians. No Patrick DesJarlait tributes. No references to Iron Eyes Cody.

 

Indigenous people receive less than 0.3% of Adland’s attention today—and every day.

16805: Indirect And Incomplete Inspection On Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

 

Okay, it’s technically not commemorating Indigenous Peoples’ Day, but Ray Agency in Newfoundland and Labrador explains this Assiniboine College campaign as follows:

 

‘Be Known’ is the first campaign developed in partnership between Ray and Manitoba’s Assiniboine College. The campaign highlights how the things we do and the choices we make in our lives leave an imprint on our communities and the world we live in.

 

Our early research and discovery work made it clear that students choose Assiniboine for a wide variety of reasons from small class sizes to focused career-oriented education and direct pathways to employment. But above all, students shared a resounding sense of connection and visibility among their peers, their faculty, and their potential employers at Assiniboine.

 

It’s this sense of being known and appreciated for who you are that resonates with our target audience. That they can learn and grow in an environment that encourages self-discovery through trial and error and hands-on learning is uncommon in larger, more impersonal post-secondary institutions. It’s not about more “rah rah student empowerment”, but instead a true journey of self-discovery and personal growth along the paths of life that we choose to travel.

 

The role that Assiniboine College plays in the province of Manitoba, and in the communities it works with, demands that we strive to hear and reflect the Indigenous experience in the work. Reconciliation is part of Assiniboine’s path to follow, and the campaign honours that.

 

Hmmm. Not sure how the campaign concept reflects the Indigenous experience. “What’s Indigenous about it?”—to use an inquiry common in multicultural marketing.

 

Can’t help but wonder if any Indigenous people—particularly from the Assiniboine community—were among Ray Agency staffers behind the work.

 

It also appears the advertisements were created with Canadian crumbs.

 

There’s much that will not Be Known about the campaign.

 

 

16804: Just Another Mad Men Monday 4.

Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce announced Dawn Chambers and Shirley formed the White advertising agency’s first Black ERG. The duo’s delegated duties include drafting commemorative memos during Black History Month, Juneteenth, and Kwanzaa.

 

Hollis the elevator attendant was prohibited from joining, as he serves the building and is not an SCDP employee.

 

Sunday, October 13, 2024

16803: Pepsi Campaign Sucks To The Max.

 

Special Group—a White advertising agency in New Zealand—explains this Pepsi Max campaign as follows:

 

The ‘Tastes OK’ campaign is the latest iteration of the established Pepsi Max ‘Tastes Better’ brand platform. It highlights a design flaw that's been hiding in plain sight in the name of the brand’s biggest competitor, reminding Australia that food tastes better with Pepsi Max.

 

The campaign not only leaves a bad taste, it revives old Coca-Cola lines:

 

• Coca-Cola…Makes Good Things Taste Better (1956)

 

• Things Go Better With Coca-Cola (1963)

 

Additionally, given how Coca-Cola is very protective of its copyrighted branding, did the campaign actually run—or is it a scampaign? Can’t imagine The Coca-Cola Company’s legal team would be ok with depicting Diet Coke cans in a Pepsi creative platform.

 

In short, these advertisements suck to the max.

 

 

Saturday, October 12, 2024

16802: 900 Million Reasons To Question LinkedIn Talent Solutions.

 

If LinkedIn Talent Solutions is so amazing, why are countless members adding #OpenToWork frames on their profile pictures? The parody ad below is probably more accurate that the actual ad above.

 

Friday, October 11, 2024

16801: TGIFatherless.

 

The Guardian published a perspective on the controversy sparked by a Heinz advertisement featuring arguably racist stereotypes. In short, Heinz took the “pa” out of pasta sauce, which left a bad taste in viewers’ mouths.

 

When a Heinz advert features racist stereotypes to sell pasta sauce, it’s vital to speak out. So I did

 

By Nels Abbey

 

I’m glad that an ad apparently minimising the role of Black fathers has drawn an apology. It’s lazy thinking we just don’t need

 

It’s Black History Month, one dedicated to reclaiming narratives. It also happens to be a month before the 140th anniversary of the plotting phase of white supremacy’s most enduring set of crimes: the Berlin conference (in which it was decided which European nations, empires or monarchs would get to own which parts of Africa and, effectively, enslave the population). Complementing and continuing the catastrophes that emerged from the industrialised kidnapping and enslavement of Africans in the Americas before it, the Berlin conference unleashed a slew of compounding tragedies, confusions, narratives and stereotypes, which have led us down the years to the stereotype of single parenthood, and notably the “deadbeat father”.

 

Fast-forward to last Friday. Standing on the Victoria line platform of Vauxhall tube station, I noticed an advert for a new “family size” pasta sauce being flogged by Heinz. It is a wedding shot, in which a joyful-looking dark-skinned Black woman in her wedding dress is clutching a fork of pasta in tomato sauce, seemingly unconcerned that sauce has dripped down her dress. So far, so innocuous. Sat beside her is a man you assume is the groom (who is white) and a rather bewildered-looking older Black woman you could reasonably guess is her mother. On her other side are two older, and also apparently bewildered, white people who would reasonably be assumed to be the parents of the groom. Admittedly I had to look a few times to ensure I wasn’t seeing things. I wasn’t. Where was her father, whom the average person – looking at her – would assume to be Black? Nowhere to be seen. Not at the top table. Not anywhere.

 

Most might not have noticed. That’s probably how the image – which Heinz, post-social media storm, has apologised for – got that far.

 

Looking at it on the tube, I reflected on how much the concept of the deadbeat or missing father has cost us. It’s not that it doesn’t happen. Everything’s Gonna Be Alright (Ghetto Bastard), a furious anti-deadbeat father record by rappers Naughty By Nature sprung to mind. It was a song I knew line for line as a 10-year-old former foster child before I met my own biological father.

 

But that detachment isn’t a given. And it certainly shouldn’t be the basis for an ad executive’s lazy assumption. On Friday night, I tweeted a line from a song by the rapper Nas, Daughters, (“for my brothers with daughters”) – alongside the picture of the Heinz ad, before adding that Black girls, believe it or not, have fathers too. It rightly touched a nerve. 


A key legacy of centuries of racist assault on Black people has been Black families struggling to stay together. Yet a statistic is a liar’s best friend, and statistics on single parenthood in Black communities are a bigot’s closest ally. Admittedly, the stats on single parenthood look notably vicious for Black communities. The figure in England and Wales increased from 48.5% in 2011 to 51.0% in 2021.

However, in Black communities, the synonymising of single parenthood with deadbeat fatherhood is an error. As in all communities, it is not uncommon for Black or multi-racial parents to break up or to be unmarried, but it is increasingly unusual for Black fathers not to play a super-active role in the lives of their children. The stereotypes we inherited from yesteryear are yet to be updated and are crowded out by statistics that don’t paint a full picture.

 

Thanks in large part to intra-communal accountability endeavours for Black fathers on an interpersonal, collective (see organisations such as Dope Black Dads) and cultural level (more musical examples include Parity by AKS), we are living through the aftershock of the era of the deadbeat Black father. So we are left with no choice but to challenge the Heinz advert and that stereotype.

 

We know that outrage sells. As does subtle racism. And in the main, no publicity – especially for a billion-dollar entity like Heinz – is bad publicity. But I will also say that, compared with other media, advertising has really tried to reflect and represent modern, multicultural and diverse Britain, especially at a time when it is under political and, as we saw in this summer’s riots, literal physical assault.

 

Advertising in Britain formed a force field against the culture war assaults of the years of Tory rule. And money talks: diversity has proven to be a very good (profitable) marketing and advertising tool. I view the Heinz ad as more cock-up than corporate Klansman conspiracy, and its apology for “unintentional perpetuated negative stereotypes” – assuming it is taking the posters down and doing something positive to challenge those stereotypes – is to be welcomed.

 

But let this be a lesson. From advertising to TV to reality, what must always be remembered is that Black girls, like Black boys, have fathers too. Keeping Black men off the table does no one any good.