Aaron Gordon

Unit 30 Advertisement Production for Television

Leo Burnett

 He was born in the United States in 1891 and was the founder of the Leo Burnett
Company Inc.
 During the war, Leo worked for British Intelligence (MI6) before he later went back
into advertising and to them become one of the most successful advertisers in the
world.
 He is a man of many advertising skills and has made many original characters for
advertisement and slogans. He was known for examining a product and not just a
product but also the target audience and figured out why the product would speak
to a buyer and processed and make them want to purchase it and purchase it over
and over again.
 Leo Burnett came up with the idea inherent drama in the 1900s, this means another
approach that will determine the major selling idea, finding the inherent drama or
the characteristic of the product that would make a consumer or customer purchase
it and then purchase it on the regular, the inherent drama approach goes out and
assesses the advertising philosophy of Leo Burnett, many businesses use this today
many years on.
 One of his most famous product would be The Green Giant which was made in 1935
and is still seen to this day under the company of B&G Foods this was a masterpiece
as he had taken a product that was commonly used in everyday meals and made it
appealing and fun, this also gave off the illusion that if you eat your greens or
vegetables you will grow big and strong and as you see most parents saying to their
kids nowadays they would say something like “Eat your greens to grow up big and
strong.” and most of them don’t even know that that came from a man in the 1900s
this set them up as the vitality of vegetables.
 During this B&G Foods were not doing so well and hired Leo to come in and help
with there advertising and this lead Leo to use inherent drama as he knew all peas
were almost all the same but needed to make this stand out so he looked at it all
over and therefore came up with The Jolly Green Giant who would be on the B&G
Foods Peas tins to make it stand out from just there logo and as well as this it was
advertised on the air giving it more publicity and made it feel like there was no other
choice in brands.
 Believe it or not, Leo made an advertisement for Marlboro Cigarette company and it
was shown until 1999. He chose to use a manly man cowboy-like figure and showed
him smoking a cigarette and lighting it with a petrol lighter showing he’s wealthier
 than a matchbox man, in the advertisement he refers to the man as a “Singular
breed” “Man” and a “Wild Stallion” this gives off the feeling that if you smoke a
Marlboro Cigarette you will become a powerful man and a high up figure like a
cowboy making you feel empowered. This was done amazing and was aimed
towards 1 gender (Males) as back them most women worked in factories or were
house wifies.
 This advertisement was done astonishing as it made you want to change brands of
cigarettes and feel like a man and they rounded the advert off with a slogan of
“Come to where the flavour is, come to Marlboro Country” this just makes you want
to give it a go and try it once and there is the effect as if you try it once you may
enjoy it and buy again and again so this will leads to repetition of sales and this also
lead on to a small advertisement serious called ‘The Marlboro Man’.
 A modern advert that would use some of Leos theory would be the Ronald Mc
Donald as he made up a character to make the company seem fun and to make it
stand out in kids minds so when they pass a McDonald’s logo they think of Ronald
and want to eat McDonald’s as there is an excitement to it unlike no other. As well
as this Innocent Smoothies used his techniques to introduce people to the healthy
side of life showing buying there drinks will do them good and it’s fun to see the
advertisement as it’s a talking fruit backed up by a range of delicious drinks and a
nicely done slogan “Tastes good. Does Good.”.
 In conclusion, Leo Burnett was a skilled man and his work sadly surpassed him as he
died in 1971 however his adverts still continue to this day with updated features.
 I believe Leo was a very skilled man in his field bring the large growth in the Green
Giant and Marlboro and his theory still exists today in modern society. He also
covered the 2 main advertisement strategies.
 Selling a brand (Marlboro) This is a reminder to show people that they are still there,
this is keeping the brand in the public eye.
 Selling a product (Green Giant, Tony The Tiger) to get people to go out and buy a
particular product.
 His skills and attributes will continue to live on in the advertising and media sector
for many years.

Bibliography
 Leo Burnett overview, life and lifestyle. LINK
 MI6 when the war was going on. LINK
 Inherent Drama. LINK
 The research of products and how he sold it to the world. LINK
 Marlboro Cigarettes and how they grew in popularity and sales. LINK
 Did it work and what skills did he use. LINK
 Modern-day with his skills and teachings. LINK
 Conclusion.