50s and 60s DDB

Read Chapters 4 of The Real Mad Men, write a summary of the aesthetic and social context of the 50s and 60s that surrounded DDB ads.

Obviously the most prominent piece of context surrounding the 50s and 60s was the aftermath of WWII although this had crippled England, and its economy by comparison America was relatively untouched, I believe that this factor was the reason for the creative revolution. As the Real Mad Men states there was a surge of foreigners arriving in the US, many of which had escaped prosecution from neighbouring countries such those in Italy and Poland. The Italians in particular, who under the ruling of Mussolini had sided with the Nazis throughout the war were a frowned upon segment of Europeans. However, many of the population who initially fled to America, aimed to avoid the conflict of WWII initially and were completely uninvolved with the negative repercussions of their stigma from WWII. However, racism does not often take account for rationality. However with the arrival of, especially the Italian immigrants the advertising market began to change substantially for the better with DDB being the focal point of the change. Bernbach remarked 'You always have to work in the idiom of the times in which you live.' The 'Creative Revolution' that took place throughout the 50s and 60s was undoubtedly a positive reaction to the hard times that the Wars and previously the recession brought about as a result of financial stability. The context of the time however is all about beginning a new in creative sectors. The Guggenheim museum is a perfect example of this; the new and almost space age structure of this building was one of the many advances of the the time period that coupled technology and design perfectly with one another in the same way as the advertising business did with fresh ideas and designs brought about by current ideas, conventions and new perceptions of the business, instigated by the arrival of the foreigners to the business. With this revelation in the context of the country so too came revolutionary ideas in advertising that made the adverts unique. Within DDB Bernbach revolutionised advertising in order to promote it as a creative discipline, by creating the art directer and copywriter dual collaboration. This insured that creative people were given a particularly large role in advertising whereas before his influence advertising was solely managed my accountants and seen as a monitory focused business. Bernbach also eliminated the phoney and false general style of adverts and began using real people and cunning innovation to create his adverts rather than simplistic data graphs and polished stereotypes.

Explain why the ‘think small’ campaign epitomises the creative revolution’

The 'think small' campaign epitomised the creative revolution for one reason. It was bold. This did not come from showing a powerful agreesive 'home- built gas guzzler' at a beutiful camera angle with various motifs and linguistic techniques that inspired adrenal reactions like others of its time. It was 'small, basic, ugly' and most important in context to when it was released, it was foreign, which after the Second World War and its patronage from Adolf Hitler was a particularly despised trait of the company in general. The campaign took negative traits like the unappealing looks and the unchanging design of the car to make it appealing as an icon rather than a product, people wanted to be part of the revolution rather than own the product but they had to own one to be a part of it. The car was not made appealing but the simplicity behind it was. The creative revolution was quite simply a change of perspective from what something was to what it could be. In this instance 'ugly and never changing' became constant and iconic. This is just what the working man (the demographic) desired from a world that appeared to be changing to fast for them to handle with glimpses into the future like the New York World Fair 1939.

The idea of using Helmut Krone as the art directer (German American) was a risky choice made by Bernbach. However I believe that because of this bare knuckle advertising technique, whereby the car was not glorified or embellished in anyway coming from Krone made the nation rekindle its trust (to a degree) in Germany and its engineering. This advert was the acceptance and beginning of change in all creative mediums.