Rosser Reeves
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Rosser Reeves (10 September 1910 – 24 January 1984) was an American
advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...
executive and pioneer of
television advertising A television advertisement (also called a commercial, spot, break, advert, or ad) is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization. It conveys a message promoting, and aiming to market, a product, service or idea. ...
; Reeves generated millions for his clients. The Ted Bates agency, where he rose to chairman, exists today as Bates CHI & Partners.


Early life and start in advertising

Reeves was born in
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
to a Methodist preacher, and briefly attended the
University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...
until he was expelled for drunkenly crashing a friend's car during the
Prohibition era Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacturing, manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption ...
. Luckily, he had just won one hundred dollars as a prize for a state-wide chemistry contest that served as his final exam for first year Chem 101. While other students wrote novel chemical formulae as their submission, Reeves, by virtue of not knowing anything about chemistry having spent the semester drinking, dancing and gambling, blithely submitted an essay titled "Better Living Through Chemistry". He would later use this title for
DuPont Corporation Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to: People * Dupont (surname), a surname of French origin * Du Pont family, one of the wealthiest families in the United States Companies * DuPont, one of the world's largest chemical compan ...
campaign. The one hundred dollars was enough money to move to Richmond where he was hired at a new bank that was hiring young contest winners. Finding that he was a poor
accountant An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certif ...
but verbally gifted, he began writing advertisements. He soon moved to
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
to found Ted Bates & Co with Ted Bates.


Advertising style

Reeves believed the purpose of advertising is to sell. He insisted that an advertisement or commercial should show off the value or
unique selling proposition In marketing, the unique selling proposition (USP), also called the unique selling point or the unique value proposition (UVP) in the business model canvas, is the marketing strategy of informing customers about how one's own brand or product is ...
, (or USP) of a product, not the cleverness or humor of a
copywriter Copywriting is the act or occupation of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. Copywriting is aimed at selling products or services. The product, called copy or sales copy, is written content that aims to incre ...
. His most typical ad is probably that for
Anacin Anacin is an American brand of analgesic that is manufactured by Prestige Consumer Healthcare. Anacin's active ingredients are aspirin and caffeine. History Anacin was invented by William Milton Knight and was first to be used as stated in the ...
, 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 most often refers to: * Gone with the Wind (novel), ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * Gone with the Wind (film), ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind ...
'' had in a quarter-century. His ads were focused around what he coined 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 A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a clan or a political, commercial, religious, or other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose, with the goal of persuading members of the public or a more defined target group ...
s — Reeves oversaw the introduction of dozens, some that still exist to this day, such as
M&M's M&M's are color-varied sugar-coated dragée chocolate confectionery by the Mars Wrigley Confectionery division of Mars Inc.. The candy consists of a candy shell surrounding a filling which determines the specific type of M&M's. Each piece has ...
"melts 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 Minute Maid is an American brand of drink, beverages, usually associated with lemonade or orange juice, but which now extends to soft drinks of different kinds, including Hi-C. Minute Maid is sold under the Cappy (juice), Cappy brand in Central E ...
orange juice,
M&M's M&M's are color-varied sugar-coated dragée chocolate confectionery by the Mars Wrigley Confectionery division of Mars Inc.. The candy consists of a candy shell surrounding a filling which determines the specific type of M&M's. Each piece has ...
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 A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...
. 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 not articulated. 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 from 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 is also notable for creating
Dwight Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...
'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.


Later years

In the 1960s Reeves' techniques began to fail. Consumers became more savvy and learned to tune out uninteresting commercials, and within the advertising industry itself the Creative Revolution, exemplified by
Doyle Dane Bernbach DDB Worldwide Communications Group LLC, known internationally as DDB, is a worldwide marketing communications network. It is owned by Omnicom Group, one of the world's largest advertising holding companies. The international advertising networks ...
's "
Think Small Think Small is an advertising campaign for the Volkswagen Beetle, art-directed by Helmut Krone. The copy for Think Small was written by Julian Koenig at the Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) advertising agency, agency in 1959. Doyle Dane Bernbach's Vol ...
" campaign for the
Volkswagen Beetle The Volkswagen Beetle, officially the Volkswagen Type 1, is a small family car produced by the German company Volkswagen from 1938 to 2003. One of the most iconic cars in automotive history, the Beetle is noted for its distinctive shape. Its pr ...
. The Creative Revolution rejected many of his precepts though some might argue that the "Think Small" does conform to the rules set out in Reeves' book ''Reality in Advertising'' because it highlights what is most unusual about the Beetle, namely its small size and distinct shape. Reeves retired at age 55. He declared that he had always planned to retire at that age, but many of his competitors felt it was because of the decline in his influence. He came out of retirement in 1967 to form the Tiderock Corporation, which he described as a "
think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...
" for corporate business. One of its projects was a promotion in 1968 of a pro-
smoking Smoking is a practice in which a substance is combusted, and the resulting smoke is typically inhaled to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream of a person. Most commonly, the substance used is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant, whi ...
article by Stanley Frank published in ''
True True most commonly refers to truth, the state of being in congruence with fact or reality. True may also refer to: Places * True, West Virginia, an unincorporated community in the United States * True, Wisconsin, a town in the United States * ...
'' magazine. The promotion was paid for by the
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.The Tobacco Institute's headquarters were ...
, who also paid Frank to write the article. This was common practice among advertising men of the time and wholly unremarkable from the perspective of 1960s-era business ethics. Reeves died of a heart attack on January 24, 1984, at his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He was 73 years old. In the late 1950s, Rosser Reeves bought the 138.72-carat star ruby, the largest star ruby ever. It is said that he carried the ruby around with him and that he considered it as his good luck charm. Mined in Sri Lanka, the original 140 carat ruby was cut down slightly to improve the star pattern in it. In 1965 Reeves donated the star ruby to the Smithsonian where it is currently on display in the Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.


Published works

Reeves expressed his views in his 1961 book, ''Reality in Advertising'' (Knopf) which is still taught at Harvard Business School. 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 wrote a well received
novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...
, '' Popo'' (Knopf) about a poet who leaves a life of material wealth to move to
Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, to pursue his
poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
. Reeves co-authored ''The 99 Critical Shots in Pool'' with Ray Martin to explain both
Euclid Euclid (; ; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the '' Elements'' treatise, which established the foundations of geometry that largely domina ...
and
Sir Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton () was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. Newton was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment that followed. His book (''Mathe ...
s' geometric proofs. Rosser Reeves' poem E=MC2 appeared in "The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction, Tenth Series" in 1961. The editors commented:


References


Further reading

*Johnston, Laurie (January 25, 1984). Rosser Reeves, 73, Ad Executive Dies. ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' *Powell, Jim (October 21, 1979). Madison Avenue's Rosser Reeves. ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' *


External links


A collection of Reeve's Eisenhower ads
*"Project X" episode 5 o
The Last Archive
by
Jill Lepore Jill Lepore is an American historian and journalist. She is the David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and a staff writer at ''The New Yorker'', where she has contributed since 2005. She writes about American h ...
(premiered 11 June 2020; especially from 16:50 to 28:30) *https://www.nytimes.com/1984/01/25/obituaries/rosser-reeves-73-ad-executive-dies.html#:~:text=Rosser%20Reeves%2C%20who%20as%20the,He%20was%2073%20years%20old. {{DEFAULTSORT:Reeves, Rosser 1910 births 1984 deaths American copywriters Advertising theorists 20th-century American economists