Kennedy's Career Track

Personal Profile Work by Kennedy Links

This page is maintained by Sharon Dang who can be reached at sdang@mail.utexas.edu

Kennedy's Career Track

1890's

John E. Kennedy, a Canadian-born citizen, started his career in advertising as an ad manager at the Hudson's Bay department store in Winnipeg. Kennedy, still in his early stages as a copywriter, wrote copy that was "unspecific, literary, general, and lacking definite information" (Smith 200).

1903

After working at the Hudson's Bay department store, Kennedy took on a number of odd jobs. He served as a business manager for a Montreal newspaper, wrote ads for the Regal Shoe Company in Boston and even promoted his own shoe designs and clothing. Kennedy also wrote for Dr. Shoop's patent medicine manufacturer in Racine, Winconsin where he was earning a salary of $28,000 a year (Lasker 10). After 18 months, Dr. Shoop terminated Kennedy's contract mid-year. The decision was not a reflrction of Kennedy's performance; the decision was mutual. Kennedy was anxious to try something new and Dr. Shoop thought Kennedy had done all he could for the company. He was described as an "intense thinker that would wear himself out and wear anyone he came in contact with, forcing them to concentrate" (10).

Spring of 1904 to 1906

The Spring of 1904 proved to be a crucial year for Kennedy. It was in 1904 that Kennedy landed a job at the Chicago office of Lord and Thomas and made his claim to fame by creating the "reason-why" copy approach.

Albert Lasker -then junior member of Lord and Thomas - hired Kennedy when Kennedy sent him a note (see reproduced note below).

	Lasker sent the word "yes" down and thus began the two year mentor-mentee relationship between Kennedy and Lasker.
(Lasker 7)

Kennedy told Lasker that advertising was "salesman-on-paper." The idea was not new- Charles Austin Bates wrote in his advertising column for Printer's Ink on September 6, 1905 that "advertisments are printed salesmen"- but Lasker deemed Kennedy an advertising genius for putting it into this perspective. Kennedy explained that print ads should function the same way that salesmen do in person. Kennedy, who had become more sophisticated with his analysis of advertisments since his days at the Hudson's Bay department store, claimed that effective advertisements should not be "charming or amusing or nessarily pleasing to the eye" but instead, should be a "rational, unadorned instrument of selling" (Fox 50). The average person, he contested, should not be talked down or up to; they should be talked to with a "shrewd but persuable openness to appeals made by sensible argruments" (50). During the course of the next two years, Kennedy worked alone with Lasker and taught him how to write "reason-why" copy and to train other copywriters. Kennedy also wrote The Book of Advertising Tests which was a collection of 12 articles, comprising of 39 pages of typescript decribing what Kennedy called "Salesmanship-on-paper" (Lasker 17). With Kennedy's help, Lasker taught a class on how to write copy twice a week for four to five hours. Lasker, convinced that the top advertising men of the West became successful as a direct result of his copywriting classes, persuaded Mr. Thomas to invest $2,000 to build nine offices for his new copywriters. Despite Kennedy's departure from Lord and Thomas in 1907, Lasker continued to teach copywriting for the next three to four years. Lasker contributed the success of Lord and Thomas in 1906 to Kennedy. Lord and Thomas' sales volume reached $3,196,000 in 1906, compared to $2,451,000 in 1903.

1907-1911

In 1907, Kennedy left Lord and Thomas to become a principal in Ethridge-Kennedy Company in New York and to pursue a number of other odd jobs. Among many other jobs, Kennedy wrote copy for a Baltimore department store and sold real estate in Los Angeles, California. In 1911, Kennedy returned to Lord and Thomas and freelanced his services for a short period of time. He became wealthy by freelancing for B.F. Goodrich tires who paid him $20,000 a year for half time. Over the years, despite Kennedy's freelancing jobs at Lord and Thomas, Lasker slowly lost contact of Kennedy.

Although Kennedy's advertising career was short, he greatly influenced other famous copywrtiers like Rosser Reeves and Claude C. Hopkins. Reeves revised Kennedy's "Salesmanship on paper" theory and postulated that "advertising is the art of getting a unique selling proposition into the heads of the most people at the lowest possible cost" (Reeves 121).

January 8, 1928

John E. Kennedy died at the age of 64 on January 8, 1928 in Michigan.

Bibliography

Fox, Stephen. The Mirror Makers: A History of American Advertising and its Creators. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1984.

Lasker, Albert D. The Lasker Story. As He Told It. Chicago: Advertising Publications, 1963.

Reeves, Rosser. Reality in Advertising. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1961.

Smith, Tommy. "John E. Kennedy." The Ad Men and Women: a biographical dictionary of advertising. Ed. Edd Applegate. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1994. 200-204.

Summary of Kennedy's Contributions to the Field of Advertising

1. Defined advertising as "Salesmanship in print."

2. Created "reason-why" copy.

3. Author of The Book of Advertising Tests (published in 1905).

Personal Profile

"He was one of the handsomest men I ever saw in my life. He had been a Canadian mounted policemen. He stood six feet full in his stocking feet, every inch of him muscle, with an eye as keen as could be in a man's head and a forehead that showed the student" (Lasker 7).

"A slow worker because he had to work everything out by very concentrated thinking. He worked under great pressure. He was a giant physically, but mentally he would wear himself out, and there would be long periods when nothing would come to him" (Fox 52).

"Kennedy did not accept authority well and wrote at his own whim, sometimes with deadlines quickly approaching. As with many creative people, he was highly protective of his work. Often, he would insist that his copy run exactly as written. He also worked into the late hours, sometimes at home" (Smith 202).

"He was the first great advertising theorist" (Reeves 120). Rosser Reeves

"Mr. Kennedy is a one-idea man. But his is a great ideaÉHis style is now the foundation stone of successful advertising" (Fox 51). Advertising and Selling.

Work by Kennedy

1. Dr. Shoop's Patent Medicine

2. "1900" Washers

3. "Those Chapped Hands" vs. "Let this Machine do your Washing Free"

4. The Book of Advertising Tests

	This ad appeared in Harpers Weekly on December 12, 1903. The copy in this ad was written by Kennedy before he went to work for Lord and Thomas (Lasker 8).
Dr. Shoop's Patent Medicine

This ad, printed prior to Kennedy's employment at Lord and Thomas, was harshly criticized by Kennedy for various reasons. Lasker recalls Kennedy commented: "Well, there just isn't one thing about this advertisement that isn't wrong if you want to sell goods. First 'Don't be chained to the wash tub.' You are speaking negatively. Every woman doesn't feel chained to the wash tub; lots of woman must enjoy it. You miss her entirely." "Second, the average woman is put in the position of a drudge, and slavery ended in '65. She won't know it consciously, but subconsciously she won't want to write and admit that she has been reduced to such bestial servility. "Again, it doesn't say a thing of what the article you want to sell will do." "Third, it makes it an installment plan proposition, and people do not like to buy a trademarked article on the installment plan because, when it is in the house, everybody who comes in and sees that 1900 washer says," Un huh! Two dollars down and two dollars forever!" "And the worst crime of all, it has the one thing that you [Lasker] do know about advertising, no news interest. Otherwise it is all right" (Lasker 12).

"1900" Washers

	This is another example of one of Kennedy's 1900 washer ads. Both ads are reproduced by Lord and Thomas (Lasker 12-14).
"Those Chapped Hands"

Kennedy, confident that his copy conveyed a better strategy than the original ads, revised the 1900 washer ad so that the copy and images would argue the "reason-why" concept. In his copy, he specifically list the reasons why people need this machine. "I say whether you use your own time or that of a washer woman, it will save you sixty cents a week, because you have to pay a washer woman, $1.20 a day, and certainly your own time is worth as much as that of a washer woman," said Kennedy (Lasker 13). As a result of Kennedy's copywriting, 1900 washers became the third or fourth largest advertiser in America within six months and doubled and tripled their plants within eight months. In the first seven days, this ad pulled in 1,547 inquires.

"Let this Machine do your Washing Free"

This is the first page of Kennedy's book entitled The Book of Advertising Tests. Over 7,000 copies were distributed and hundreds of letters a week from manufactures and ad agencies were received by the agency. Not only did this book influence many copywriters at other agencies but also promoted the fact that Lord and Thomas was paying a salary of $72,000 a year for their copywriters and that "no other agency in America spends one-third this sum" (17).

The Book of Advertising Tests

The copy of The Book of Advertising Test on page 1 read as follows:

Advertising should be judged only by the goods it conclusively known to sell, at a given cost.

Mere opinions on Advertising Copy should be excluded from consideration, because opinions on Advertising are conflicting as opinions on Religion.

Forty per cent of all the people in the world are Buddhist, and are of opinion that Buddhism is the only true religion.

Twelve per cent of the world's people being Roman Catholics, are firm in the opinion that the remaining 88 per cent are wrong, and are sure of damnation accordingly.

Eight per cent of the world's people being Protestants believe that both the Buddhists and Catholics, and all others, are deplorably ignorant of the only true faith, which of course must be their own particular sect of Protestantism.

And, neither Buddhists, Catholic, nor Protestant, can convince the 2 per cent of Jews that their opinion is wrong and should be changed.

That is a side-light on the inconsistency of mere Opinion.

Religion must continue in the realm of opinion, because no one can decide which Creed is right, and which is wrong, till he dies and finds out the facts for himself.

And, no mere man who died has ever come back to Earth to settle the dispute.

###

But, it is different with Advertising, as it is with Mechanics or with Medicine, all three of which can be conclusively tested.

Many advertisers, however, seem satisfied to spend their money on mere Opinions about Advertising when they might have invested it on Evidence about Advertising.

These are the Advertisers, whose business must die before they can be convinced that "General Publicity" (merely "Keeping-the-Name-before-the-People") is wrong and "Salesmanship-on-paper" right.

They blindly gamble in Advertising when they might have safely invested in it.

Other Ads by Kennedy

Ads	Headline/Concept
Armour Star Ham	"The ham what Am-Amour's." This ad had an African American pictured.
	"The ham what ees-Amour's" This ad had an Italian pictured.
	"The ham vat iss-Amour's" This ad had a German pictured.
B.F. Goodrich	No information.
Fairy Soap	"How would you like to have a fairy in your home? Use Fairy soap." This ad had a little girl pictured.
Force Breakfast Food	No information.
Postum	No information.
Quaker Oats	"Quaker Oats-the smiles that won't come off. They eat Quaker oats."

Links

In 1942, Lord and Thomas was succeeded by three of Albert Lasker's senior executives, Emerson Foote, Fairfax Cone, and Don Belding. They eventually formed Foote Cone Belding.

Click here University of Texas, Austin: Advertising World for more information about advertising agencies and other related sites.