Ted Bates is the general name for the advertising agency founded by
Ted Bates in 1940. The company grew to become the world’s fourth largest agency.
History
The firm was founded by Ted Bates in 1940 as Ted Bates, Inc.. It was purchased by
Saatchi & Saatchi
Saatchi & Saatchi is a British multinational communications and advertising agency network with 114 offices in 76 countries and over 6,500 staff. It was founded in 1970 and is currently headquartered in London. The parent company of the agency gr ...
in 1986, and merged in 1987 with
Backer & Spielvogel Advertising to form Backer Spielvogel Bates Worldwide, Inc.. In 1994 the name was changed back to Bates Worldwide. Meanwhile, the parent company Saatchi & Saatchi changed its name to Cordiant plc in 1995. In 1997 Cordiant spun off both Saatchi & Saatchi and Bates Worldwide, and Bates became the primary subsidiary firm of a newly formed holding company,
Cordiant Communications Group. In 2003, Cordiant was purchased by
WPP Group
WPP plc is a British multinational communications, advertising, public relations, technology, and commerce holding company headquartered in London, England. It was the world's largest advertising company, as of 2019. WPP plc owns many compan ...
.
Accomplishments
Ted Bates' creative partner was advertising maverick
Rosser Reeves
Rosser Reeves (10 September 1910 – 24 January 1984) was an American advertising executive and pioneer of television advertising; Reeves generated millions for his clients. The Ted Bates agency, where he rose to chairman, exists today as Bates ...
, who invented the
TV commercial
A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...
, crafted one of the most popular brand slogans of all time (
M&M's
M&M's (stylized as m&m's) are multi-colored button-shaped chocolates, each of which has the letter "m" printed in lower case in white on one side, consisting of a candy shell surrounding a filling which varies depending upon the variety of M&M ...
"melt in your mouth, not in your hand"), wrote the first bestselling book on advertising, "Reality in Advertising," and created the famous
unique selling proposition
In marketing, the unique selling proposition (USP), also called the unique selling point, or the unique value proposition (UVP) in the business model canvas, is the marketing strategy of informing customers about how one's own brand or product is s ...
(or USP) that is still used by marketers today.
To quote
David Ogilvy
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
, founder of Ogilvy & Mather, "Rosser taught me my trade….and that the real purpose of advertising was to sell the product". Their edict of effectiveness remains a core focus for the agency today. Ted and Rosser are in many ways the original "ad men," it is widely accepted that the popular TV drama ''
Mad Men
''Mad Men'' is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on the cable network AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, lasting for seven seasons and 92 episodes. Its fict ...
'' is based, at least in part on them.
Work for Tobacco Industry
A one-page, 1967 Tobacco Institute document is the text of a proposed print ad designed to confuse the public about the link between smoking and lung cancer. It was one of five ads drafted and tested by Ted Bates & Company, Inc. Advertising for the Tobacco Institute in the wake of the publication of the 1967 Surgeon General's Report, The Health Consequences of Smoking.
A partial quote from the document:
"COMMUNISM CAUSES CANCER
You don't believe it? Well, wait a second. Let's use the same kind of statistical analysis the Public Health Service is using to 'prove' that cigarettes cause cancer. We'll use only statistical facts taken from bona fide population surveys.
#Americans smoke a lot and some of them die of lung cancer. The Dutch smoke less than Americans, but more of them die of lung cancer.
#The Australians smoke a lot and some of them die of lung cancer. The British smoke as much as the Australians, but twice as many British have lung cancer...
One statistical inference is very clear. In each pair of countries, the higher cancer rate is in the country closer to the Iron Curtain...By the same means that some public servants are using to indict cigarettes, we've just proved that Communism causes cancer. But you know and we know, Communism is not guilty. And nobody yet knows about cigarettes."
Ted Bates, Communism Causes Cancer, Tobacco Institute document, 1967, Bates No. TIMN0272537
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References
{{Reflist
External links
Reputation Defenders Website
Digital Marketing & Web Design
WPP plc
Advertising agencies of the United States
Mass media companies established in 1940
1940 establishments in the United States
1986 mergers and acquisitions
1997 mergers and acquisitions
2003 mergers and acquisitions