Leo Burnett (1892–1971) was an American creative artist, and advertising executive. A creative genius, Burnett developed enduring campaigns for such household brands as Kellogg’s, Campbell Soup, and Procter & Gamble, and in the process, built his Leo Burnett Company into one of America’s most prominent ad agencies.
Born in St. Johns, Michigan, Burnett worked at his dad’s dry goods store the store as a youth, where he watched his father design ads to promote his business. He also lettered advertising signs for his father, and worked as a local reporter while attending high school.
After graduating from the University of Michigan, Burnett became editor of an in-house publication for Cadillac car dealers called Cadillac Clearing House. For many years, he worked at various automobile companies and ad agencies; he founded Leo Burnett Company in 1935 in Chicago.
Burnett is also the founder of the ‘Chicago School’ of advertising—in his campaigns, he used shared emotions and experiences drawn from mid-western American values. His creative ads contained visual, meaningful images that were emphasized over long-established text-filled descriptions of the product features.
Burnett and his agency were responsible for the creation of such famous brand icons as the Jolly Green Giant, Pillsbury Doughboy, Charlie the Tuna, Tony the Tiger, Morris the Cat for Starkist, and the Maytag Repairman. Burnett is also credited with the Marlboro Man, which boosted the brand from less than 1% market share in 1953 to the largest-selling cigarette in the world.
At the time of his death, the Leo Burnett Company had over $400 million in annual billings, and was the fifth largest advertising agency in the world.
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When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either.
—Leo Burnett
The secret of all effective originality in advertising is not the creation of new and tricky words and pictures, but one of putting familiar words and pictures into new relationships.
—Leo Burnett
Topics: Advertising
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