Leo Burnett (October 21, 1891 – June 7, 1971) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

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 century, including

Tony the Tiger Tony the Tiger is the advertising cartoon mascot for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes (also known as Frosties) breakfast cereal, appearing on its packaging and advertising. Tony has also been the mascot for related cereals such as Tony's Cinnamon K ...

, 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. ...

, the

Maytag Repairman 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, ...

United United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...

's "Fly the Friendly Skies", and

Allstate The Allstate Corporation is an American insurance company, headquartered in Northfield Township, Illinois, near Northbrook since 1967. Founded in 1931 as part of Sears, Roebuck and Co., it was spun off in 1993 but still partially owned by S ...

's "Good Hands", and for garnering relationships with multinational clients such as

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 ...

Hallmark A hallmark is an official mark or series of marks struck on items made of metal, mostly to certify the content of noble metals—such as platinum, gold, silver and in some nations, palladium. In a more general sense, the term ''hallmark'' can al ...

and

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...

. In 1999, Burnett was named by ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

Biography

Leo Burnett was born in St. Johns, Michigan, on October 21, 1891, to Noble and Rose Clark Burnett. Noble ran a dry goods store and as a young man, Burnett worked with his father, watching Noble as he designed ads for the business. After high school, Burnett went on to study

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...

at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

and received his bachelor's degree in 1914. Burnett's first job after college was as a reporter for the Peoria ''Journal Star'' in

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria ...

. In 1917 he moved to

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

and was hired to edit an in-house publication for Cadillac Motor Car Company, Cadillac Clearing House, later becoming an advertising director for that institution. At Cadillac, Burnett met his advertising mentor, Theodore F. MacManus, whom Burnett called "one of the great advertising men of all time". MacManus ran the agency that handled Cadillac's advertising. In 1918, Burnett married Naomi Geddes. The couple met at a restaurant near the Cadillac offices, where Naomi was a cashier. They went on to have three children: Peter, Joseph and Phoebe. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Burnett joined the

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

for six months. His service was mostly at

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

building a

breakwater Breakwater may refer to: * Breakwater (structure), a structure for protecting a beach or harbour Places * Breakwater, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia * Breakwater Island Breakwater Island () is a small island in the Palme ...

. After the USN, Burnett returned to Cadillac. A few employees at Cadillac formed the LaFayette Motors Company – triggering Burnett to move to

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

to work for the new firm. Soon he was offered a position with Homer McKee. He then left LaFayette and joined McKee, where Burnett said of the founder, "(He) gave me my first feel of what I have come to regard as the "warm sell" as contrasted to the "hard sell" and "soft sell". This was his first agency job. Grave of Leo Burnett (1891–1971) at Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago

Grave of Leo Burnett (1891–1971) at Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago

After spending a decade at McKee's, and working through the

stock market crash of 1929 The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...

, Burnett left the company. In 1930, he moved to

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

and was hired by Erwin, Wasey & Company, where he was employed for five years. In 1935, Burnett founded the Leo Burnett Company, Inc. Later, the operation moved to the 18th floor of the London Guarantee Building. Today, the agency has 9,000+ employees in over 85 offices globally. In December 1967, nearing the end of his career, Burnett delivered his "When To Take My Name Off The Door" speech at the agency's holiday gathering. On June 7, 1971, Burnett went to his agency, pledging to colleagues to work three days per week due to health problems. That evening, at age 79, he died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

at his family farm in

Hawthorn Woods, Illinois Hawthorn Woods is a village in Fremont and Ela townships in Lake County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 9,062. The village is located approximately northwest of downtown Chicago. Hawthorn Woods was officially ...

. He is buried at

Rosehill Cemetery Rosehill Cemetery (founded 1859) is an American garden cemetery on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois, and at , is the largest cemetery in the City of Chicago. According to legend, the name "Rosehill" resulted from a City Clerk's error – the a ...

in Chicago.

Leo Burnett Company

private company A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

formed in 1935 and officially running under the name of " Leo Burnett Company, Inc.", the agency started with working capital of $50,000, eight employees and three clients. Now a part of

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 ...

, Leo Burnett is one of the largest agency networks with 85 offices in 69 countries and 9,000+ employees. For the first several years, Burnett billed about $1 million annually. By 1950, billings had increased to $22 million, and by 1954 the company was at $55 million annually. By the end of the 1950s, the Leo Burnett Company was billing $100 million annually.

Companies Burnett worked with

(1957) *

Commonwealth Edison Commonwealth Edison, commonly known by syllabic abbreviation as ComEd, is the largest electric utility in Illinois, and the in Chicago and much of Northern Illinois. Its service territory stretches roughly from Iroquois County on the south to ...

(1954) *First Brands (1961) *

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

Oldsmobile (1967) *

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 ...

(1935) * Heinz Pet Products (1958) * Keebler Co. (1968) * Kellogg's (1949) *

Kraft Foods The second incarnation of Kraft Foods is an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. in 2012 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz in 2015. A merger with Heinz, arra ...

(1984) *

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company has presence in 35 countries and territories and sells products in more ...

(1970) *

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, ...

(1955) *

Memorex Memorex Corp. began as a computer tape producer and expanded to become both a consumer media supplier and a major IBM plug compatible peripheral supplier. It was broken up and ceased to exist after 1996 other than as a consumer electronics bran ...

(1968) *

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...

(1967) * Philip Morris Co. (1954) * Pillsbury (1944) *

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 ...

(1952) *

Schlitz Brewing Company The Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company was an American brewery based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and once the largest producer of beer in the United States. Its namesake beer, Schlitz (), was known as "The beer that made Milwaukee famous" and was adve ...

(1961) *

Starkist 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 manufactur ...

(1958) *

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

(1965)

Notable creations

*Hubert The Lion

arris Bank In architecture, an arris is the sharp edge formed by the intersection of two surfaces, such as the corner of a masonry unit; the edge of a timber in timber framing; the junction between two planes of plaster or any intersection of divergent a ...

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 ...

reen Giant*

Keebler Elves The Keebler Company is an American cookie and former cracker manufacturer. Founded in 1853, it has produced numerous baked snacks, advertised with the Keebler Elves. Keebler had marketed its brands such as Cheez-It (which have the Sunshine Biscu ...

eebler* The Marlboro Man hillip Morris Co.*

aytag Haytagh ( hy, Հայթաղ, also Romanized as Hayt’agh, Aytakh, and Aytag) is a town in the Armavir Province of Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of ...

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 ...

Lives*

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 ...

illsbury*

Tony The Tiger Tony the Tiger is the advertising cartoon mascot for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes (also known as Frosties) breakfast cereal, appearing on its packaging and advertising. Tony has also been the mascot for related cereals such as Tony's Cinnamon K ...

ellogg's Frosted Flakes*

Toucan Sam Toucan Sam is the cartoon toucan mascot for Froot Loops breakfast cereal. The character has been featured in advertising since 1963. He exhibits the ability to smell Froot Loops from great distances and invariably locates a concealed bowl of the c ...

ellogg's Froot Loops

Advertising techniques

Burnett used dramatic realism in his advertising, the

Soft sell In advertising, a soft sell is an advertisement or campaign that uses a more subtle, casual, or friendly sales message. This approach is the opposite of a hard sell. Theorists have examined the value of repetition for soft sell versus hard sell ...

approach to build brand equity. Burnett believed in finding the "inherent drama" of products and presenting it in advertising through warmth, shared emotions and experiences. His advertising drew from heartland-rooted values using simple, strong and instinctive imagery that talked to people. He was also known for using "cultural archetypes" in his copy, by creating mythical creatures that represented American values. This is evident on such campaigns as

and more famously the

. Indeed, these campaigns played on the 1950s attitudes towards masculinity that pervaded his campaigns.

Corny language

Burnett was known for keeping a folder in the lower left-hand corner of his desk called "Corny Language". He collected words, phrases, and analogies that struck him as being particularly apt in expressing an idea.

Social advertising

In 1947, Burnett wrote ''The Good Citizen'', a booklet concerning the duties and privileges of being a

U.S. citizen Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constituti ...

. This was done as a public service for The

Advertising Council The Advertising Council, commonly known as the Ad Council, is an American nonprofit organization that produces, distributes, and promotes public service announcements on behalf of various sponsors, including nonprofit organizations, non-governme ...

and The American Heritage Foundation.

References

External links

''Time'' 100 profile – Leo Burnett

When to Take My Name Off the Door Speech, Text

Leo Burnett Worldwide
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burnett, Leo 1891 births 1971 deaths University of Michigan alumni Burials at Rosehill Cemetery Businesspeople from Chicago American copywriters American advertising executives People from St. Johns, Michigan 20th-century American businesspeople