Fun fact: Less than three months after the death of Mr. William Bernbach, the international advertising agency, Doyle, Dane Bernbach's ethical founding creative director and "spiritual head," DDB began taking tobacco clients once again, commencing with PHILLIP MORRIS, second largest tobacco company. From The New York Times:
DOYLE Dane Bernbach has accepted the assignment of Parliament cigarettes from the Philip Morris Company, ending an agency ban against such advertising that had been in effect for at least a decade.
The announcement from both companies follows by less than three months the death of William Bernbach, the founding creative director and spiritual head of the agency, who had instituted the ban.
Actually, according to Neil R. Austrian, president and chief executive officer, the agency changed its corporate policy late last year when it was involved in merger discussions with Foote, Cone & Belding, one of whose major client is Lorillard, the tobacco company that is a division of Loew's Theatres Inc.
But, he said, ''I seriously doubt we would have changed if Bill were still here.'' It's not that the Parliament brand is all that big a deal: It only billed $4.6 million last year, according to Leading National Advertisers, and it has a declining market share, according to John C. Maxwell, an analyst with Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb Inc. But for D.D.B., it is a foot in the door of Philip Morris, the second-largest tobacco company after R.J. Reynolds that also owns Miller Brewing and the Seven-Up Company. It is also the country's fourth-largest advertiser overall, having spent $433 million last year.
It is really a return engagement for Doyle Dane, because it had worked for the company before 1961 on the Alpine and Benson & Hedges brands.
Mr. Austrian recalled something that Mr. Bernbach had said after stepping down from the chief executive's post: ''Look, you people are running the company now, you're going to have to make up your own minds.''
''It made us rethink all of our policies,'' Mr. Austrian said. A similar comment was made by David Ogilvy to the leadership of the American branch of his Ogilvy & Mather. Motivated by a family tragedy, he was the first agency chief to ban cigarettes.
This ban has since been lifted by new management, and the agency has done some work for R.J. Reynolds. Benton & Bowles also had a ban in the early days when the health dangers of smoking were not widely known. Now that they are, according to Victor Bloede, the chairman, the agency doesn't think the same way. Its client list includes Liggett Group Inc.'s Pinkerton Tobacco, a leading marketer of smokeless tobacco.
It would appear that only McCaffrey & McCall of the better known agencies is maintaining its ban. ''We're a small prosperous company,'' said David McCall, chairman, with a laugh, ''and we don't have to do those things.'' The only outright prohibition remaining at D.D.B. is against political advertising, according to Mr. Austrian. The agency instituted that ban after it helped President Johnson beat Barry Goldwater.
A Philip Morris spokesman said the company had been talking for 18 months to D.D.B., which was one of 10 agencies it had discussions with after it made its decision that company growth would require adding to the two shops handling its cigarettes -Leo Burnett Company of Chicago, where Parliament previously was assigned, and Wells, Rich, Greene.
In a staff memo Friday, Mr. Austrian notified his people about the change in policy and about the new buisness. He said that a number of creative and account types had ''expressed a strong interest in working on'' a cigarette account, and that Philip Morris had met the agency's four criteria: It produces a product legal to advertise in this country; it is a company that the agency could serve with advertising that ''our people would be proud of from a creative standpoint;'' it is ''an honorable company that sets high standards,'' and it has ''people with whom we can build a long-term relationship.''
Earlier this year, the agency's Los Angeles office introduced a new campaign for Smart Tip disposable cigarette filters from Teledyne Water Pik with the theme, ''It's not as good as quitting but it's a step in the right direction.''
A version of this article appears in print on Dec. 20, 1982, Section D, Page 9 of the National edition with the headline: Advertising; Doyle Dane Cigarette Ban Ended.
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1 comment:
The government is making money hand over fist off cigarettes and other tobacco products. The latest round of price increases are from exorbitant taxes by mostly the federal government. Look up price increases on smokeless tobacco and see. And chewing tobacco isn't healthy but it is healthier than smoking so that's the thanks people get for chewing tobacco instead of smoking.
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