Life History

Stanley Pollitt was born on February 14, 1930 in Paris France. His father was a painter who moved the family between France and Italy while Pollitt was growing up. As an adolescent, Pollitt attended the St. Paul's School at St. Paul's' Cathedral in London, where he excelled in history and the arts. Pollitt's family still spent a great deal of time abroad during his adolescence and he came across numerous diplomats. For this reason, he previously commented that he though he would end up working in the Foreign Office. However, he decided to attend Cambridge and initially started working towards becoming a barrister (lawyer). (Campaign,1979).

St. Paul's Cathedral www.stpauls.co.uk

(www.cam.ac.uk)

Somewhere along the way, Pollitt decided that he would fair better as an advertising man. It was a decision that he never regretted. He had a friend whose father was a partner of Pritchard Wood Partners and it was at that agency that he stared his legacy in the advertising world. In the beginning he floated from the media department, to being a copywriter, to finally, the account group. Within two years as an account person, he was working on some of the company's largest accounts, including Izal Strong Tissue Paper. (Campaign, 1979)

Within Pritchard Wood, Pollitt often worked closely with all of the other departments in the agency. "I was in the luck position at PWP to be essentially an account director, a user of research and media services, with board responsibility for the research and media departments. It enabled me to rationalize these into a planning group, while avoiding all the usual political infighting, " (Campaign, 1979). It was through his exposure of the research department that Pollitt was least satisfied. To him, there were five major faults to consumer research (Twivy, 1993):
1) Researching all potential users of the brand is wasteful - only research loyalists and users
2) The ability to get people to "parrot" you slogans has no connection to advertising effectiveness.
3) People do not perceive a brand in parts, but as a whole.
4) People screen out messages that challenge existing behavior.
5) You cannot divorce what you say form how you say it.
Pollitt believed that advertisers could not test their strategies in isolation and be successful; they had to use consumers to execute strategies. It was at PWP that he first began the conception of a strategic planner, a person who would be equal with the account person and the creative and be the consumer's conscience.

In 1968, Pollitt, along with Martin Boase and Gabe Massimi, started the agency Boase Massimi Pollitt. It was at BMP that Pollitt installed his first account planning department. Pollitt stayed with BMP until the time of his unsightly death. He died in 1979, at age 49, from a heart attack.

Personality

Stanley Pollitt has been described as "the world's worst presenter," "very bright and a little professorial," and "an unlikely advertising chief," (Campaign, 1979). Pollitt wore round and thick "Eric Morecambe" glasses and was considered to be a terrible dresser. He mumbled his words quite often and often turned his back to the audience when he was presenting (Twivy 1993). Jim Williams, on of Pollitt's "disciples" states (Campaign, 1979):

He was a chain smoker who was almost never found without a cigarette in his mouth, and after lunch he could be found drinking wine. These two vices were such a part of Pollitt that Martin Boase, in an article for Campaign in 1998, commented: "As Stanley sits up there, looking down upon us while still brushing cigarette ashes from his lapel, he should be proud," (Newman, 1998).

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Through adolescence and early adulthood Pollitt practiced the sport of boxing. He was a former University boxer and was considered to be an above-average boxer, despite his smaller stature. There are stories about the times when Pollitt's former boxing has shown through in the board room, especially when he would come flying through the conference room doors when his side of an argument had failed (Campaign, 1979). It is also rumored that Martin Boase once locked Pollitt in his office to prevent him from attending a "particularly sensitive client meeting," (Steel, 1998).

Get a glimpse at the successful Cadbury's account that Pollitt worked on at BMP.