Much like those tiresome car-leasing ads, this column will feature a huge disclaimer that may wind up being almost as long as the column itself. It goes something like this:
I have never had the pleasure of meeting the two women I am writing about. To the best of my recollection, I have never set foot inside any of the offices of the agency I am writing about, nor have they ever paid me one lousy buck for my outstanding services. They did buy me a nice lunch once, but that’s a long story, and the restaurant went belly-up within the year. The current management of the agency does not know me from Adam Ant, and will likely be mildly amazed if they read this. This piece is simply what it says at the top of the column: a viewpoint.
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I read the other day that Lorraine Tao and Elspeth Lynn have been named vice-presidents by Leo Burnett.
Assuming that the promotion does not remove them from their keyboard and layout pad, it is a great move.
These women are responsible for two of the finest advertising campaigns produced anywhere in the 1990s: Fruit of the Loom and Kellogg’s. You’ve seen them, I certainly hope: the sexy underwear on the clothesline, and the trials of women trying to be slim and attractive.
Both campaigns are wonderful because they share the same characteristics. They are honest, understanding of their audience, intelligent, and very, very human. They both accomplish something that’s extremely rare in advertising: they encourage the viewer to be herself, instead of some prepackaged ideal according to Cosmopolitan. And they do it with empathy, instead of with preaching.
But that’s the history of the Burnett agency. Decade after decade, much of the advertising that hits consumers’ hearts comes from Leo Burnett.
Please notice that I said hearts. I didn’t say that Burnett advertising hits your brain, like David Ogilvy’s used to. Nor that it clobbers your funny bone, like the Joe Sedelmaier classics for FedEx and Fiberglas. And it generally doesn’t spend a lot of time hitting awards annuals and trendy magazines. Nope. Burnett advertising just quietly settles down, like a cat, into a warm place inside you.
You think that’s an exaggeration? Check the list: The Green Giant. The Pillsbury Doughboy. The Keebler Elves. Tony the Tiger. Snap, Crackle and Pop. ‘You’re in good hands with Allstate.’ ‘Fly the friendly skies of United.’ The lonely Maytag repairman. And from another era, great advertising in a less-than-great category, the Marlboro cowboy.
If you equate good creativity with a funny punch line or a nifty typeface, you’ll scoff at those examples. They’re about as hip and trendy as Wayne and Shuster or Norman Rockwell. But think about it. Every one of those campaigns is not just part of advertising history, but part of North American folklore.
I’ll bet that if you showed the Green Giant to a thousand people in a word-association test, 800 would immediately shout ‘Ho ho ho.’ What would be the equivalent response for other companies selling frozen veggies: McCain, or the long-lost BirdsEye? Hey, what more can advertising be asked to do?
The Leo Burnett agency has long insisted on headquartering itself in Chicago, which also says something about the agency. Chicago is not cute like Wieden & Kennedy’s Portland, or hedonist like Chiat/Day’s Laguna Beach, or arrogant like New York.
Chicago is comfortable with itself. Chicago has the self-confidence to name itself the Second City. Where New York’s favorite lyric is ‘If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere,’ Chicago sings ‘They have the time, the time of their life, I saw a man, he danced with his wife.’
Chicago is geographically and empathetically in the heart of middle America, and so is Leo Burnett. If you are in the advertising business, there are worse places to be.
Of course, middle American headspace has moved through the decades, so the work of Ms. Tao and Ms. Lynn has to be a lot edgier than, say, the Pillsbury Doughboy. And it is. But they’re still finding their audience, as Burnett always has.
It’s just one man’s viewpoint, but I congratulate them.

John Burghardt’s checkered resume includes the presidency of a national agency, several films for the Shah’s government in Iran, collaboration with Jim Henson to create the Cookie Monster, and a Cannes Gold Lion. The letterhead of his thriving business now reads ‘strategic planning * creative thinking’. He can be reached by phone at(416) 693-5072, by fax at (416) 693-5100 or by e-mail at burgwarp@aol.com