Rosser Reeves
Encyclopedia
Rosser Reeves was a hugely successful American
advertising
executive and pioneer of television advertising. He believed the purpose of advertising is to sell. He insisted that an advertisement or commercial should show off the value of a product, not the cleverness of a copywriter. 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. In 7 years the 59-second commercial made more money than the movie Gone With The Wind
had in a quarter-century.
Reeves generated millions for his clients, the Ted Bates
agency where he rose to chairman (existing today as Bates 141
. The AMC program, Mad Men
, uses Reeves as one model for the professional accomplishments of the series' protagonist, Don Draper (Jon Hamm).
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 slogan
s — Reeves oversaw the introduction of dozens, some that still exist to this day, such as M&M's
"melt in your mouth, not in your hand." He argued that advertising campaigns should be unchanging with a single slogan for each product. His commercials for Bic
pens, Minute Maid
orange juice, M&M
candies, Colgate
toothpaste and other products used similar methods, often making dramatic demonstrations.
Reeves pointed out that to work, advertising had to be honest. He insisted the product being sold actually be 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. Successful advertising for a flawed product would only increase the number of people who tried the product and became dissatisfied with it. If advertising is effective enough and a product flawed enough, the advertising will accelerate the destruction of the brand. Similarly, Reeves believed it was a waste of money to claim uniqueness that doesn't exist, because consumers will soon find out, and they won't come back to the brand. This is important because historically fortunes are made from repeat business. Money would be better spent building some kind of meaningful advantage into a product before launching a costly advertising campaign to promote it.
Reeves advised clients to be wary of brand image advertising which is less likely to be successful than his claim-based strategy. This is because when communication relies on an image, the claim is unarticulated. An image can almost always be interpreted different ways, many if not most of which won't do a product any good. The message that a viewer takes away from an image is often very different than what the advertiser had intended.
Or to put it another way: practically every product has a number of benefits that might be claimed. Commonly one of the benefits is more popular than the others, even more popular than the others combined. Therefore, it's imperative to do everything to make people understand the most important benefit, to achieve credibility and to avoid distractions. The aim is to have as high a percentage of people as possible take out of an advertisement what the advertiser intends to put into it. This is most likely to be achieved if a claim is articulated and proven with credible evidence—in a brief commercial, some kind of dramatic demonstration.
Reeves expressed his views in his 1961 book, Reality in Advertising (Knopf). An interview with Reeves was included in The Art of Writing Advertising (1965). His greatest contributions were to express more clearly than anyone else the philosophy of a claim and to show how the philosophy could be applied to commercials that involve severe time constraints.
Reeves is also notable for creating Dwight 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. Consumers became more savvy and learnt to tune out uninteresting commercials, and within the advertising industry itself the Creative Revolution (exemplified by Bill Bernbach's "Think Small
" campaign for the Volkswagen Beetle
), which rejected many of his precepts, began. At age 55 Reeves retired. He declared that he had always planned to retire at that age, but many felt it was because of the decline in his influence.
Reeves did not shy from questionable ethics, including using doctors to sell cigarette
s. He came out of retirement in 1967 to form the Tiderock Corporation, which he described as a "think tank" for corporate business.
One of its projects was a promotion in 1968 of a pro-smoking article by Stanley Frank published in True
magazine. The promotion was paid for by the Tobacco Institute
, who also paid Frank to write the article.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
executive and pioneer of television advertising. He believed the purpose of advertising is to sell. He insisted that an advertisement or commercial should show off the value of a product, not the cleverness of a copywriter. His most typical ad is probably that for Anacin
Anacin
Anacin is a pain reliever intended for the temporary relief of minor aches and pains. Anacin is a product of Insight Pharmaceuticals. Anacin's active ingredients are aspirin and caffeine.-History:...
, a headache medicine. The ad was considered grating and annoying by almost all viewers but it was remarkably successful, tripling the product's sales. In 7 years the 59-second commercial made more money than the movie Gone With The Wind
Gone with the Wind
The slaves depicted in Gone with the Wind are primarily loyal house servants, such as Mammy, Pork and Uncle Peter, and these slaves stay on with their masters even after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 sets them free...
had in a quarter-century.
Reeves generated millions for his clients, the Ted Bates
Ted Bates (executive)
Theodore Lewis "Ted" Bates was an American advertising executive who founded a worldwide advertising agency that bears his name: Ted Bates Inc...-Biography:...
agency where he rose to chairman (existing today as Bates 141
Bates 141
Bates 141 is an Asia-devoted marketing communications network and part of WPP Group. Headquartered in Hong Kong, Bates 141 operates across 13 countries in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Vietnam.Its...
. The AMC program, Mad Men
Mad Men
Mad Men is an American dramatic television series created and produced by Matthew Weiner. The series premiered on Sunday evenings on the American cable network AMC and are produced by Lionsgate Television. It premiered on July 19, 2007, and completed its fourth season on October 17, 2010. Each...
, uses Reeves as one model for the professional accomplishments of the series' protagonist, Don Draper (Jon Hamm).
His ads were focused around what he called the unique selling proposition
Unique selling proposition
The Unique Selling Proposition is a marketing concept that was first proposed as a theory to explain a pattern among successful advertising campaigns of the early 1940s. It states that such campaigns made unique propositions to the customer and that this convinced them to switch brands...
, the one reason the product needed to be bought or was better than its competitors. These often took the form of slogan
Slogan
A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a political, commercial, religious and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm . Slogans vary from the written and the...
s — Reeves oversaw the introduction of dozens, some that still exist to this day, such as M&M's
M&M's
M&M's are dragée-like "colorful button-shaped candies" produced by Mars, Incorporated...
"melt in your mouth, not in your hand." He argued that advertising campaigns should be unchanging with a single slogan for each product. His commercials for Bic
Bic Cristal
The Bic Cristal is an inexpensive disposable ballpoint pen mass-produced and sold by Société Bic of Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France.-Background:...
pens, Minute Maid
Minute Maid
Minute Maid is a product line of beverages, usually associated with lemonade or orange juice, but now extends to soft drinks of many kinds, including Hi-C...
orange juice, M&M
M&M
M&M may refer to:* M&M's, a chocolate confectionery coated with hard candy shell* Eminem, stage name of rap artist Marshall Mathers III* "M+M's", a song by the American band Blink-182 from Cheshire Cat...
candies, Colgate
Colgate (toothpaste)
Colgate is an oral hygiene product line of toothpastes, toothbrushes, mouthwashes and dental floss.-Duraphat:Duraphat is a professional strength paste intended for the treatment and prevention of dental caries....
toothpaste and other products used similar methods, often making dramatic demonstrations.
Reeves pointed out that to work, advertising had to be honest. He insisted the product being sold actually be 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. Successful advertising for a flawed product would only increase the number of people who tried the product and became dissatisfied with it. If advertising is effective enough and a product flawed enough, the advertising will accelerate the destruction of the brand. Similarly, Reeves believed it was a waste of money to claim uniqueness that doesn't exist, because consumers will soon find out, and they won't come back to the brand. This is important because historically fortunes are made from repeat business. Money would be better spent building some kind of meaningful advantage into a product before launching a costly advertising campaign to promote it.
Reeves advised clients to be wary of brand image advertising which is less likely to be successful than his claim-based strategy. This is because when communication relies on an image, the claim is unarticulated. An image can almost always be interpreted different ways, many if not most of which won't do a product any good. The message that a viewer takes away from an image is often very different than what the advertiser had intended.
Or to put it another way: practically every product has a number of benefits that might be claimed. Commonly one of the benefits is more popular than the others, even more popular than the others combined. Therefore, it's imperative to do everything to make people understand the most important benefit, to achieve credibility and to avoid distractions. The aim is to have as high a percentage of people as possible take out of an advertisement what the advertiser intends to put into it. This is most likely to be achieved if a claim is articulated and proven with credible evidence—in a brief commercial, some kind of dramatic demonstration.
Reeves expressed his views in his 1961 book, Reality in Advertising (Knopf). An interview with Reeves was included in The Art of Writing Advertising (1965). His greatest contributions were to express more clearly than anyone else the philosophy of a claim and to show how the philosophy could be applied to commercials that involve severe time constraints.
Reeves is also notable for creating Dwight 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. Consumers became more savvy and learnt to tune out uninteresting commercials, and within the advertising industry itself the Creative Revolution (exemplified by Bill Bernbach's "Think Small
Think Small
Think Small was an advertising campaign for the Volkswagen Beetle, created by Julian Koenig at the Doyle Dane Bernbach agency in the 1950s. It was ranked as the best advertising campaign of the twentieth century by Ad Age, in a survey of North American advertisements...
" campaign for the Volkswagen Beetle
Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Type 1, widely known as the Volkswagen Beetle or Volkswagen Bug, is an economy car produced by the German auto maker Volkswagen from 1938 until 2003...
), which rejected many of his precepts, began. At age 55 Reeves retired. He declared that he had always planned to retire at that age, but many felt it was because of the decline in his influence.
Reeves did not shy from questionable ethics, including using doctors to sell cigarette
Cigarette
A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...
s. He came out of retirement in 1967 to form the Tiderock Corporation, which he described as a "think tank" for corporate business.
One of its projects was a promotion in 1968 of a pro-smoking article by Stanley Frank published in True
True (magazine)
True, also known as True, The Man's Magazine, was published by Fawcett Publications from 1937 until 1974. Known as True, A Man's Magazine in the 1930s, it was labeled True, #1 Man's Magazine in the 1960s. Petersen Publishing took over with the January 1975, issue...
magazine. The promotion was paid for by the Tobacco Institute
Tobacco Institute
The Tobacco Institute, Inc. was a United States tobacco industry trade group, founded in 1958 by the American tobacco industry.It was dissolved in 1998 as part of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.-Founding:...
, who also paid Frank to write the article.