The real Mad Men

The the environment in the late 1950's into the 1960's was one of extraordinary flux. culturally the 'birth' of the teenager had added an entirely new group to the world. During this time there were the coming and going of millions of new ideas, creativity was exploding into the fore front of society and along with it the the rise of an era of change was occuring.

It is within this period of new ideas that advertisers like George Lois, Bill Bernbach, Jerry Femina etc where starting to really fight for a change to the idioms that were running the advertising industry. It was the bad name that advertising had been accoladed with, due to the dishonest and uninspired work of the account people, that drove people like Bernbach to make work that reflected what the public were feeling at the time, and communicate products with them in a responsible and genuine way. The creative revolution was beginning with Dane Doyle Bernbach (DDB) being recognised as an agency at its lead, only taking on work that they felt was justified, being honest about the product, and thinking about the public's needs and ambitions by understanding the cultural eruption that was occurring.

The think small campaign was without a doubt a risk. It not only went against the styles that cars were being advertised in at the time, but it was taking a product with a difficult job a head of it and being brutally honest about it. The interesting thing about the ad is the pure creativity and whit behind it. It was launched in the full swing of the 'creative revolution' and had people very nervous about launching it, causing much argument at the forward thinking DDB agency. I believe the reason that this campaign epitomises the creative revolution is what it stands for, Confidence and honesty, but above all the ad embodies the breaking away from the tried and tested repetition method being used by the old breed of advertisers. The industry was learning that fear of failure was holding it back, and this radical ad not only bewildered many with its success but went to prove that the age of risky creativity was coming and was going to stay.