The 60's

The 60’s were a period of crisis, turbulence, and radical movements in American history.  Among other things, it was a time of massive antibusiness sentiment.[1]  Advertising, as part of the business establishment was under fire.  The advertising industry faced one of its most challenging times. 

Advertising was viewed as the messenger of abundance and as an integral part of the establishment in an era of antiestablishment and anticonsumerism.  Immersed in this dilemma, the advertising industry came up with a successful strategy: to appear to join the antiestablishment movement.[2]  As Hazel Warlaumont says, advertising adopted a “turncoat” strategy: it took sides with the people (got sync with society) and distanced itself from the big business and power elite ideology.[3]

 Advertising became less “snobbish”, the ordinary replaced the idealized, informality displaced formality, and ads acquired a more honest tone.

The 60’s were characterized by a exploding creativity across disciplines, including advertising.  Society used the aesthetic dimension to revolt against established styles, consumption, abundance, conventional wisdom, and the “establishment”.  It was a time of pluralism in the history of art.  There was a great variation in both style and in what was permissible art practice. The arts expressed the feeling of dissatisfaction and unrest of the decade. Both national values and artistic forms went through a period of reorientation.

Advertising’s golden age of creativity

The advertising industry needed to reflect the creative movement as well as the antiestablishment sentiment.

Madison Avenue was the center of a “creative explosion”, better known as the “creative revolution”. 

The two main figures of the time were David Ogilvy and William Bernbach. These two individuals made enormous contributions; however, the creative explosion included a much larger group of individuals. 

Advertising appropriated Pop art, which was a form of social protest in a witty, humorous and irreverent style.  The creative revolution in advertising was more than assimilating popular art styles.[4] It was a change of mentality that allowed greater freedom and letting go of old ways.  Moreover, the change in advertising agencies internal structures, into smaller creative teams, gave space for more original thinking and copywriting.  Humor and irreverence replace the more serious strategies.

The 60’s were unique time for advertising creativity as it was for the rest of all expressive arts. Innovation and imagination was promoted as agencies moved away from research and formulas from the past.  The award winning ads and popular campaigns showed a new level of innovation known as “new advertising”.