Mr... what?

“For more than 50 years, Mr Clean has been a beloved cleaning brand trusted by millions of consumers. In 1957, our beloved Mr Clean icon was born. Mr Clean was created by Chicago Art Director Ernie Allen.”

 Procter&Gamble Co.

It's been a tough month. End of vacations. Handing-in final assignments. Study week. Exam week. That's why I haven't posted in one month, and I apologize for that. But finally assignments and exams are over and after 1 week of relax in London here I am again. As you all may know today in GAA we're going to talk about Mr Clean, or Mr Proper... or Don Limpio... well, this bald guy that cleans everything. 

So, first of all, who's actually Mr Clean? 

Well, according to the company, the original model is a Navy sailor from the city of Pensacola, FL, although most people think he is a genie based on his earring, folded arms, and tendency to magically appear at the appropriate time. Mr Clean has always smiled on the packaging, except for a brief time in the mid 1960's when he was frowning on the package. However, he has never talked.

Why changing the name?

The main problem was that each country had the exact same packaging and naming but in a different price, so supermarkets and other shops would go to another country to buy it cheaper and then increase the selling price in their home country.

For this reason, P&G (company that owns Mr Clean) decided to adapt the name of the product, so one could see where did the product come from. However, P&G stated that the change was basically "to avoid confusions with the meaning of the product or with other similar brands".
The different names are:

•       Mr Clean in USA

•       Don Limpio, in Spain (originally launched and sold for years as 'Mister Proper')

•       Maestro Limpio, in Mexico and Puerto Rico

•       Mastro Lindo, in Italy and Malta

•       Meister Proper, in Germany (originally; labeled now as Mr. Proper)

•       Meneer Proper, in Belgium (Flandes) (Colloquially, the brand is known as 'Mister Proper')

•       Pan Proper, in Poland

•       Mister Proper, in Eastern Europe

•       Monsieur Net, in Quebec and French Canada

•       Monsieur Propre, in France

•                            Romuald Diego, in Philipines

Note that in the UK and Ireland the product is sold under the brand name Flash because the name Mr. Clean was already used by another company. Furthermore, in these two countries the mascot does not exist.  

 


 

Special after-Christmas post

Some people have complained because GAA's last posts were only in spanish, so I've decided to write this special after-christmas post ONLY in English. Today GAA is going to discuss where does Santa Claus come from, and why does he have this appearance. 

It all started in 1931 Coca-Cola began placing its ads in popular magazines. Archie Lee, the D'Arcy Advertising Agency executive working with The Coca-Cola Company, wanted the campaign to show a wholesome Santa who was both realistic and symbolic. So Coca-Cola commissioned Michigan-born illustrator Haddon Sundblom to develop advertising images using Santa Claus — showing Santa himself, not a man dressed as Santa.

In the beginning, Sundblom painted the image of Santa using a live model — his friend Lou Prentiss, a retired salesman. When Prentiss passed away, Sundblom used himself as a model, painting while looking into a mirror. Finally, he began relying on photographs to create the image of St. Nick.

My hat's off to the pause that refreshes. 1931

Dear Santa. Please Pause here... Jimmy. 1932

People loved the Coca-Cola Santa images and paid such close attention to them that when anything changed, they sent letters to The Coca-Cola Company. One year, Santa's large belt was backwards (perhaps because Sundblom was painting via a mirror). Another year, Santa Claus appeared without a wedding ring, causing fans to write asking what happened to Mrs. Claus.

From 1931 to 1964, Coca-Cola advertising showed Santa delivering toys (and playing with them!), pausing to read a letter and enjoy a Coke, visiting with the children who stayed up to greet him, and raiding the refrigerators at a number of homes. The original oil paintings Sundblom created were adapted for Coca-Cola advertising in magazines and on store displays, billboards, posters, calendars and plush dolls. Many of those items today are popular collectibles.

They knew what I wanted. 1945

Now it's my time. 1951

Refreshing Surprise. 1959

Sundblom created his final version of Santa Claus in 1964, but for several decades to follow, Coca-Cola advertising featured images of Santa based on Sundblom’s original works. These paintings are some of the most prized pieces in the art collection in the company’s archives department and have been on exhibit around the world, in famous locales including the Louvre in Paris, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, the Isetan Department Store in Tokyo, and the NK Department Store in Stockholm. Many of the original paintings can be seen on display at World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta, Ga.

Absolut Success

Absolut Vodka

Durante estos dos meses, se han analizado campañas de coches, tabaco y comida rápida, básicamente los negocios más importantes de los años 50-80. Aun así, a este blog todavía le falta analizar un producto indispensable para completar esta lista. En efecto, se trata del alcohol, bebida indispensable para cualquier hombre de la época. ¿Cuántos vasos de vodka, ron, whiskey o ginebra se toman en un capítulo de Mad Men? Incontable. Por eso en la publicación de hoy, The Golden Age of Advertising (GAA) va a analizar el éxito de la campaña “Absolut” de Absolut Vodka.

Por increíble que parezca, Absolut Vodka sigue usando la misma campaña con la que se introdujo en los Estados Unidos en 1981, “Absolut”, creada por la agencia TWBA. Si en el primer post GAA lo titulaba “The simpler, the better”, en este se podría utilizar exactamente el mismo titulo. Posiblemente la sencillez de la campaña es lo que le ha permitido sobrevivir durante más de 30 años. Como podréis ver en las imágenes a continuación, Absolut Vodka simplemente centra sus anuncios en la belleza, el arte y el diseño de su botella, que es siempre protagonista de sus carteles. La excelencia de la campaña le ha permitido ganar numerosos premios, entre los cuales destaca la inclusión en el “Hall of fame” de la Asociación Americana de Marketing en 1992, junto a otros gigantes como Coca Cola o Nike.

A GAA le gusta especialmente el  cartel de a continuación, "Absolut Clarity". La razón del copy y el diseño tenia un objetivo concreto: dejar claro que, aunque la mayoría de gente relaciona el Vodka con Russia, Absolut es producido y embotellado en Suecia. ¿Y por qué era importante esta aclaración? Guerra fría. Hay que recordar que los posts de GAA se sitúan entre los años 50 y 80. Las fuertes tensiones entre americanos y soviéticos provocaban desconfianza entre los productos que procedían de la URSS, por ese motivo Absolut dejó claro que su producto es Sueco.

Precisamente hace poco mas de 2 meses (septiembre 2013) Absolut Vodka anunció que rompían sus más de 30 años de relación con TWBA y lanzaban una nueva campaña que rompía con lo visto hasta el momento.

Jonas Tåhlin, Vicepresidente de Marketing de Absolut anunciaba el cambio el pasado 9 de septiembre de la siguiente manera.

“Nos dimos cuenta que el modelo tradicional de poner un anuncio bonito en la contraportada de las revistas ya no funcionaba. Queriamos cambiar nuestra forma de ser, dejar de decir y empezar a hacer. Por lo que decidimos buscar otro formato, una nueva forma de comunicarnos con nuestros héores, nuestros consumidores, por lo que decidimos llevar a cabo esta transformación. […] Ya no trabajamos con TWBA, nos dimos cuenta que comprometernos con una sola agencia no es la forma en que queremos trabajar, así que decidimos que a partir de ahora vamos a trabajar con diferentes agencias que nos aporten el mayor numero de ideas.”

Esta es la nueva campaña:

The simpler, the better

Think Small, Bill Bernbach 

[ESP] Si señores, como no podía ser de otra forma, estrenamos blog con una de las mejores campañas de la historia. Declarada la mejor del siglo XX por “Ad Age “ y que nos llega de la mano de Bill Bernbach. Este señor –junto a otros- fue artífice de una revolución, la de la creatividad. Nos encontramos a finales de los 50, donde las campañas solo se centran en resaltar los beneficios y cualidades del producto. Tal cual. Por suerte, al señor Bernbach se le ocurrió la idea de promocionar el producto de una forma divertida, en clave humorística e incluso riéndose de los defectos de su producto.

Y así nació “Think different”. Una campaña que rompía no solo con los cánones de publicidad de la época, sino también con los del automóvil. En aquellos años, cuanto más grande y potente era el coche, mejor. Pues bien, aquí nuestro hombre destacó precisamente lo contrario: “piensa en pequeño” decía el copy. Así de simple, pero así eficaz. Una maravilla.

[ENG] Yes folks, there’s no better way to start but with one of the greatest campaigns in the history. This campaign was declared as the best advertising campaign of the twentieth century by Ad age and brought to us by Bill Bernbach.

This guy -with others- was the architect of a revolution, the revolution in creativity. In the late 50's, all the campaigns would only focus on highlighting the benefits and features of the product. Like that. Fortunately, Mr. Bernbach came up with the idea of ​​promoting the product in a funny way and even making fun of its imperfections.

That’s how "Think different" was born. DDB built a print campaign that focused on the Beetle's form, which was smaller than most of the cars being sold at the time. This unique focus in an automobile advertisement brought wide attention to the Beetle. So simple, yet so effective. Wonderful. 

Ejemplos de campañas de coches en los años 50:

Examples of other car campaigns in the 50's:

Chevrolet 1956

Roadmaster 1950's

Hudsons 1950

Otras campañas derivadas de Think small son:

Other campaigns related to Think small:

Lemon.

It makes your house look bigger

Volkswagen's unique construction keeps dampness out

Don't laugh.

El anuncio de Bernbach que cambió el mundo de la publicidad:

Bernbach's commercial that changed the advertising world:

Volkswagen "Funeral"

Art director: Roy Grace(DDB)
Copywriter: John Noble(DDB)
Director: Haward Zieff
Producer: Don Traver(DDB)

Fuentes:

Resources:

Lahistoriadelapublicidad

Wikipedia

AdAge

DesignShack