Even though he was a founding partner of BBDO, Barton
admitted that he never deemed advertising as his life's profession.
"He looked on the agency as allowing him the time
to write free-lance articles and to make enough money in 15 years so that
he could pursue another career in politics, teaching or whatever."
(Thompson in The Ad Men and Women, p.15)
He entered the realm of Advertising because of the success
of a direct-response ad campaign that he did for Harvard Classics in 1912.
Barton successfully sold more than 400,000 sets of the books by promising
that one could "earn more and enjoy life more than many college men"
by reading them only 15 minutes a day.
Barton coined his first famous slogan:" A man may
be down but he is never out" while doing volunteer work for the Salvation
Army during World War 1.
Under Barton's guidance, BBDO became one of the largest
ad agencies in the world within four years of its founding. His agency
had a client list that included Lever Brothers, General Electric, Dunlop
Tires among others.
During the 1920's, Barton created the character Betty
Crocker, the archetypal housewife. He also improved public opinion of
United States Steel with ads that celebrated the personal accomplishment
of its founder, Andrew Carnegie ("He came to a land of wooden towns
and left a nation of steel").
Despite the fame and success he gained from advertising,
Barton had always expressed doubts in private letters about the worth of
advertising and the course of American business.
For instance, in a 1926 letter he wrote,"It seems
to me that a very large percent of the current advertising is merely representative
of the most wasteful phases of the competitive system."
Marchand (1985) also reports on Barton's comments in
1934 concerning advertising: "silly advertisements, dishonest advertisements,
disgusting advertisements... which have turned advertising into a circus"
(p.317)
Although he was displeased with what he experienced in
the world of advertising, his overall view of advertising is best summarized
in his own words: "Advertising has been 'voted' for, and elected as
the method by which people want to learn what to buy" (Advertising
Campaigns, p.20)
Barton also deemeed copywriters and ad agencies as playing
a facilitating role in that their ultimate responsibility was to "interpret,
and cater to, the customer viewpoints." (Mayer, p.321)
In the 1930's, Barton turned his attention away from
advertising and toward politics.
In 1960, Printer's Ink awarded Barton the gold medal
for advertising. His ads and campaigns have won too many awards to mention.
Contributions
To Advertising
Barton's major contribution to the realm of advertising
was his ability to develop effective and creative advertising and image-building
campaigns, and to communicate those talents to those who worked in BBDO.
(The Ad Men and Women, p.14)
"His flair for copywriting also made him a strong
creative influence in his agency, which built an impressive list of clients
largely on the basis of it's copy strength." (Thompson in The Ad Men
and Women, p. 14)
Barton also contributed much of his time and talents
to charitable and civic organizations, helping them "to use advertising
and promotional techniques to raise funds and obtain public support for
their programs." (Thompson in The Ad Men and Women, p. 18)
Barton
in Advertising
