Leo Burnett Worldwide, Inc., also known as Leo Burnett Company, Inc., is an American

advertising company An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally ...

, founded on August 5, 1935, in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Leo Burnett Leo Burnett (October 21, 1891 – June 7, 1971) was an American advertising executive and the founder of Leo Burnett Company, Inc. He was responsible for creating some of advertising's most well-known characters and campaigns of the 20th cent ...

. In September 2002, the company was acquired by

Publicis Groupe Publicis Groupe is a French multinational advertising and public relations company. One of the oldest and largest marketing and communications companies in the world by revenue, it is headquartered in Paris. After 1945, the little-known Paris ...

, the world's third largest advertising agency holding group and one of the largest agency networks.

History

Leo Burnett Company, Inc. was founded on August 5, 1935, in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, who had three accounts to start. In 1944, the agency opened a branch office in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In February 1967, the founder transferred all of his voting stock to a charitable organization. Billings were then "nearing $250 million". On March 20, 1967, the agency completed its acquisition of D.P. Brother & Co. On June 8, 1971, the founder died at the age of 79. On November 3, 1999, Burnett and D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles announced the creation of BDM. BDM was quickly renamed Bcom3. Roy Bostock was named chairman and Roger Haupt was named CEO. In September 2002, Bcom3 was acquired by Publicis Groupe. Brazil-based independent advertising agency Tailor Made was acquired by Publicis in 2011 and merged with Leo Burnett Brazil to form Leo Burnett Tailor Made. At that time, clients included

Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer hea ...

Emirates Emirates may refer to: * United Arab Emirates, a Middle Eastern country * Emirate, any territory ruled by an emir ** Gulf emirates, emirates located on the Persian Gulf ** Emirates of the United Arab Emirates, the individual emirates * The Emirat ...

and

Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...

. Andrew Swinand became CEO in 2017.

Clients

Foods

The

Pillsbury Doughboy Poppin' Fresh, more widely known as the Pillsbury Doughboy, is an advertising mascot for the Pillsbury Company, appearing in many of their commercials. Many commercials from 1965 until 2005 (together with some for GEICO between 2009 and 2017) en ...

was created for the

Pillsbury Company The Pillsbury Company is a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based company that was one of the world's largest producers of cereal, grain and other foodstuffs until it was bought by General Mills in 2001. General Mills brands consist of Annie's, Betty Croc ...

by Rudy Perz, a copywriter for Leo Burnett. Agency employee Tom Rogers created the character

Charlie the Tuna Charlie the Tuna is the cartoon mascot and spokes-tuna for the StarKist brand. He was created in 1961 by Tom Rogers of the Leo Burnett Agency. StarKist Tuna is owned by Dongwon Industries, a South Korea-based conglomerate. Charlie is one of th ...

for

StarKist Tuna StarKist Tuna is a brand of tuna produced by StarKist Co., an American company formerly based in Pittsburgh's North Shore that is now wholly owned by Dongwon Industries of South Korea. It was purchased by Dongwon from the American food manufactu ...

. The ad campaign added the phrase "Sorry Charlie" to the American lexicon. StarKist still uses the spokesfish to represent the brand. StarKist's relationship with the Leo Burnett Company began in 1958 and continued after

Heinz The H. J. Heinz Company is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869. Heinz manufactures thousands of food products in plants on six conti ...

bought StarKist in 1963. For Heinz, the agency produced a series of television ads emphasizing the thickness of their

ketchup Ketchup or catsup is a table condiment with a sweet and tangy flavor. The unmodified term ("ketchup") now typically refers to tomato ketchup, although early recipes used egg whites, mushrooms, oysters, grapes, mussels, or walnuts, among other ...

brand, including a memorable ad featuring the

Carly Simon Carly Elisabeth Simon (born June 25, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, memoirist, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records; her 13 Top 40 U.S. hits include "Anticipation" (No. 13), " The Right Thin ...

song "

Anticipation Anticipation is an emotion involving pleasure or anxiety in considering or awaiting an expected event. Anticipatory emotions include fear, anxiety, hope and trust. When the anticipated event fails to occur, it results in disappointment (if posit ...

". The Jolly

Green Giant Green Giant and Le Sueur (spelled Le Sieur in Canada) are brands of frozen and canned vegetables owned by B&G Foods. The company's mascot is the Jolly Green Giant. Company and brand history The Minnesota Valley Canning Company was founded in ...

and Sprout advertising icons came out of the agency. The Minnesota Valley Canning Company originally created the Jolly Green giant character as a large, cave-man looking character to draw attention of the size of their Le Sueur peas. The Leo Burnett agency was hired to make the Jolly Green Giant more friendly-looking. In 1972, the Jolly Green Giant was joined by Sprout to appeal to children. Hamburger giant

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

began operations in India in 1996 and recruited Leo Burnett (India).

Other products

In 1961, the agency created the "Dependability" campaign for the

Maytag The Maytag Corporation is an American home and commercial appliance company owned by Whirlpool Corporation since April 2006. Company history The Maytag Washing Machine Company was founded in 1893 by businessman Frederick Maytag. In 1925, ...

brand. The campaign featured actual consumer testimonials on the reliability of their appliances. The campaign evolved into a radio call-in show in Canada where an appliance repairman would offer advice to customers. In 1967, the 'Ol Lonely character debuted on television. Jesse White played the role of the lonely Maytag repairman until 1989 when he was replaced by actor

Gordon Jump Alexander Gordon Jump (April 1, 1932 – September 22, 2003) was an American actor best known as the clueless, yet occasionally wise, radio station manager Arthur "Big Guy" Carlson in the TV series ''WKRP in Cincinnati'' and the incompetent Ch ...

. The agency guided Philip Morris (now part of

Altria Group Altria Group, Inc. (previously known as Philip Morris Companies, Inc.) is an American corporation and one of the world's largest producers and marketers of tobacco, cigarettes and related products. It operates worldwide and is headquartered in ...

) in building

Marlboro Marlboro (, ) is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Philip Morris USA (a branch of Altria) within the United States and by Philip Morris International (now separate from Altria) outside the US. The largest Mar ...

into a global brand, with an emphasis on manliness as typified by the image of the

Marlboro Man The Marlboro Man is a figure that was used in tobacco advertising campaigns for Marlboro cigarettes. In the United States, where the campaign originated, it was used from 1954 to 1999. The Marlboro Man was first conceived by Leo Burnett in 1954. ...

on the

American Frontier The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of United States territorial acquisitions, American expansion in mainland North Amer ...

. Previously the brand was "a feminine brand." Burnett created the popular brand mascot

Morris the Cat Morris the Cat is the advertising mascot for 9Lives (cat food), 9Lives brand cat food, appearing on its packaging and in many of its television commercials since the 1970s. Description A large orange tabby cat, tabby cat#Nomenclature and etymo ...

for 9Lives cat food. Several dozen television commercials featuring the "finicky" eater were produced from 1969 until Burnett ended their relationship with parent company Heinz in 1994.

Controversy

Pokémon

In the English dub of the '' Pokémon: The Johto Journeys'' episode ''The Whistle Stop'', originally aired December 2, 2000, the character

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

gets partially swallowed by his Victreebel, and while struggling utters garbled dialogue consisting of the phrase "Leo Burnett and 4Kids are the Devil!" backmasked.

Eric Stuart Eric Stuart is an American voice actor and musician who worked for 4Kids Entertainment, NYAV Post, and Central Park Media. Early life Stuart was born in Brooklyn, New York to a modern dancer mother and a criminal attorney father. Voice act ...

, James' English voice actor at the time, later explained that this was in protest of the companies' decision to stop compensating Pokémon voice actors for use of their audio clips in promos for the show. This scene was redubbed in home releases.

North Face

In 2019, Brazilian-based subsidiary Leo Burnett Tailor Made engaged in product placement on Wikipedia, in which they placed images advertising

The North Face The North Face is an American outdoor recreation products company. The North Face produces outdoor clothing, footwear, and related equipment. Founded in 1968 to supply climbers, the company's logo draws inspiration from Half Dome, in Yosemite ...

products on

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...

, and advertised that they had done so in a video posted on YouTube. Once this was discovered, Wikipedia volunteers removed the images, and the

Wikimedia Foundation The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., or Wikimedia for short and abbreviated as WMF, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California and registered as a charitable foundation under local laws. Best kno ...

released a statement condemning Leo Burnett Tailor Made's use of Wikipedia for product placement. The North Face posted a response as a reply on Twitter, stating that they had ended the campaign and that "We believe deeply in Wikipedia’s mission and apologize for engaging in activity inconsistent with those principles."

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.leoburnett.com Advertising agencies of the United States Marketing companies established in 1935 Companies based in Chicago Publicis Groupe 1935 establishments in Illinois American subsidiaries of foreign companies 2002 mergers and acquisitions Conflict-of-interest editing on Wikipedia