In this weeks class, we focused on legendary advertising executive, Leo Burnett. Burnett is best known for his work with Kellogg's, Maytag and Marlboro. Most notably, Burnett's firm created the iconic Marlboro Man which served the brand from its creation in 1954 all the way until 1999. Burnett's marketing strategy was based on a few different concepts. Simplicity was one of the most important elements involved in the majority of his works. What made the Marlboro Man so iconic and successful was the simplicity behind it. Marlboro was originally made for women and wanted to shift their brand image, so Burnett created a relatable, blue-collar, American man that could attract the male market. The simplicity behind this idea was that men would be inspired to buy Marlboro cigarettes if they knew other "common" men were doing it too. This concept blends nicely with another one of Burnett's critical elements; knowing your brand. The Marlboro man was not only memorable, but also became successful because he was a representation of the brand itself. Burnett studied who Marlboro's desired target market was, analyzed them thoroughly, and created a memorable campaign that was a successful image of what the brand represented.
Even though the Marlboro Man represents the rugged side of Burnett's genius, he also had a softer side as evident through his work for Kellogg's. Burnett is known for creating the characters of Tony the Tiger for Frosted Flakes and Charlie the Tuna for StarKist Tuna. These characters were designed with one thing in mind: simplicity. The characters are relatable, memorable, and fun which is partly what made them so successful. They made something as boring as breakfast cereal or tuna fish into something that made people want to purchase the product, which was of course Burnett's goal.
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