Saturday, July 25, 2009




In 1962 the Bureau of Advertising of the American Newspaper Publishers Association said that this Chevy ad achieved the highest ad noting among all ads for that year. The research was conducted by Starch-MMN.

Now that's the kind of recognition you like to get when you are a young ad maker. I made the layout with the four cars because Chevrolet had been asking for multi car ads to show off the all they had to offer. David E. Davis Jr. wrote the wonderful copy to go with it. That was the way we worked back then. Sometimes I came up with a picture idea and David E. would write copy to go with it and other times he would write a headline (sometimes copy too) and I would make the visual to go with it. What fun we had and what good work we did. We were pretty much beginners and just wanted to do good stuff. We weren't making a lot of money and David E. sometimes did some writing on the side. If you ever come across some good stories in an old buff magazine by a fellow named W. Frank Street that will be David E. Davis Jr. I used to pick him up on the way to work when he lived on West Frank Street in Birmingham MI. 

Times were much different back in 1962 at Campbell-Ewald and maybe other agencies too. David and I didn't get invited to the luncheon for the presentation to Chevy and we didn't get our picture taken with the Chevy ad manager. In fact we didn't know about the award until we saw the story in the local paper. No matter we were happy for the ad and for Chevrolet. Like I said we just wanted to do good stuff.

Jose Calvillo did the art for all the cars and background. I think it was Jim Jackson that did all the people. It  was not unusual back then to have more than one artist work on an illustration. At the time newspapers were where Chevrolet spent the most money. To quote Ted Little, our Chairman and CEO, " We're convinced that is where we get the most results for our money". 

2 comments:

Tony said...

I've always liked ads that showed more than one model or the whole lineup

sandman said...

Jm- wondering if you were the one involved with putting together the ads that had Point Betsie lighthouse and Sleeping Bear Dunes and other places in northwestern Michigan together. I have collected a number and have wanted to write a story about the procedure. Any help would be appreciated. I am retired, but my son in the managing editor of the paper over in Frankfort. Thanks Pete Sandman. My e-mail is lockhartfield@hotmail.com