Background
Leo Burnett was born on October 21, 1891 in St. Johns, Michigan, to Noble Burnett and Rose Clark.
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The Leo Burnett Brand Belief System is our brand building philosophy and practice,
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(A forceful personality whose love of advertising influenc...)
A forceful personality whose love of advertising influenced the meteoric rise of his own agency to one of the world's best, Leo Burnett challenged advertising professionals everywhere to reject compromise and "Reach for the Star." This one of a kind collection of inspiring quotes from the advertising legend provides a fascinating insight into his thinking on creativity, artistic integrity, motivation, teamwork, and the business of selling.
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Leo Burnett was born on October 21, 1891 in St. Johns, Michigan, to Noble Burnett and Rose Clark.
His early interest in advertising was probably expressed when he painted signs at his father's dry-goods store as a young boy. He was attracted to journalism and so in 1914 received a degree in that subject from the University of Michigan.
He worked for a year with the Peoria Journal as a crime reporter and was editor and advertising director for the Cadillac Motor Company in-house magazine. He became acquainted with Theodore F. MacManus, who had led Cadillac in its effort to surpass Packard as the luxury car choice.
After World War I, Burnett moved to Indianapolis to work for the Lafayette car company but soon began working for a local advertising firm. Seeking greater opportunities in advertising, Burnett moved to Chicago. After a short stint with the local office of a New York firm, Homer M. Kee, he opened his own advertising firm on August 5, 1935, with the help of some colleagues from Indiana.
The Leo Burnett Company, Inc. , soon attracted the clients Hoover Vacuum Company and the Minnesota Valley Canning Company, the predecessor of the Green Giant Company, a large food processor.
Charlie the Star-Kist Tuna, the Pillsbury Doughboy, the Jolly Green Giant, Tony the Tiger, and Morris the Cat were all Burnett inventions. Tony the Tiger created the brand identity of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes, and an off-color parody of the Pillsbury Doughboy led to major litigation in which Pillsbury successfully restrained a pornographic magazine from depicting Burnett's Doughboy engaged in various sex acts; the case remains an important precedent on the limits of parody as applied to advertisements.
At his Lake Zurich, Illinois, farm in the 1950's, Burnett hit upon another American icon, the cowboy, as the basis for the Marlboro Man. This tattooed individual, usually seen roping cattle, became the symbol of the tobacco industry's emphasis on masculinity in the face of danger. The success of this campaign probably played a role in the 1969 congressional decision to ban tobacco advertising on television and radio.
Burnett centralized his operations in a Wacker Drive office (in a commercial area near the Loop), which conducted virtually all American operations for the Leo Burnett Agency.
He died at his Lake Zurich farm. The advertising firm of Leo Burnett continued as one of the largest in the world.
(A forceful personality whose love of advertising influenc...)
(The Leo Burnett Brand Belief System is our brand building...)
Burnett supported a Republican party and even created the slogan in 1964 stating: "In your heart, you know he's right, " for Barry Goldwater's successful bid for the Republican presidential nomination, but he was dropped for another agency during Goldwater's fall campaign for the presidency.
His strength was the ability to understand his client's business and to create memorable advertising characters. Burnett's working style emphasized intensive commitment to a few clients (around thirty), but Burnett would make up for the intensity of this work by taking larger commissions.
Burnett urged his employees to make ads for the fun of it. Money, he always reasoned, would follow.
Burnett was a short man who barely spoke above a whisper.
On May 29, 1918, he married Naomi Geddes; they had three children.