Leo Burnett

In 1918, while working for Cadillac, Leo Burnett married Naomi Geddes. She was as a cashier in a small restaurant near his office and they met at this very restaurant. They had three children: Peter, Joseph and Phoebe.

From the mid-1960s, Burnett began to suffer from various ailments and began to give up most of his responsibilities. He ultimately retired in 1967; but continued to attend office at least twice a week.

On June 7, 1971, he attended office and pledged to his staff that he would cut back on his work. He had a heart attack the very evening and died at his family farm in Lake Zurich, Illinois. He was then 79 years old.

Leo Burnett was born on October 21, 1891 in St. Johns, Michigan, U.S.A. His father, Noble Burnett ran a dry goods store. His mother was Rose Clark Burnett.

In his childhood, Burnett often worked at his father’s store. At that time, he often watched his father as he designed posters and banners to promote his business. Thus he had his first lessons of advertisements from his father. Soon he started designing posters for the school football team.

As an adolescent, he had little self-confidence and genuinely believed that he was not as smart as many other boys. Fortunately, he also believed that if he worked really hard may be he would ‘average out.’

Apart from designing posters, he also developed an interest in journalism. While studying in high school, he spent his summers working as a reporter for several weekly newspapers of that locality.

After graduating from school, he started teaching at the single-roomed village school at St. Johns. Later, he left his job to study journalism at the University of Michigan.

Leo Burnett started his career as a police reporter for the ‘Peoria Journal Star’ in Peoria, Illinois. However, he dreamed big and aspired to become the publisher of famous newspapers like ‘The New York Times.’ He also realized that he could make a lot of money if he went into advertisement.

Yet, he kept on working for ‘Peoria Journal Star’, covering dirty politics and murders without a byline for $18 a week. Then in 1915, he had his own biweekly column. Titled, ‘Right of Way, a Column About Railroads and Those Who Run Them’, it ran for three months.

However, the young man was not at all satisfied because he knew that it was the automobile, not railroad, which was America’s future. At this juncture, his English professor, Dr. Fred Newton Scott, brought to his notice that Cadillac Motor Company was recruiting staff.

He therefore left his job and set out for Detroit. In 1916, after a round of interviews and written test, in which he had to write an essay on ‘the importance of cleanliness’, he was appointed an editor of ‘Cadillac Clearing House’, an in-house publication for Cadillac dealers.

As a part of his duty, he was required to cover publicity works for the company at auto shows held in cities like New York and Chicago. His work in this field earned him great acclaim and he was made the director of advertising within a couple of years.

Leo Burnett then set out to gather the capital. He sold his home, hocked his insurance policies and borrowed heavily from banks. Finally with $50,000 as working capital, he opened the door of his new company, Leo Burnett Company, Inc, in a suite at the Palmer House, Chicago, on August 5, 1935.

It was a risky venture, especially because Chicago was far away from the center of the advertising industry. Yet, several of the creative people from Erwin, Wasey & Company also moved in with Burnett; so did Minnesota Valley Canning Company (now Green Giant Co.), which was earlier with Erwin.

During the first few years, the company billed only about $1,000,000 annually. Apart from the canning company, two other accounts that he was able to retain were The Hoover Company and Realsilk Hosiery Mills.

However, as his advertisements reflected the Mid Western hominess rather than New Yorker sophistication and stressed ‘on the inherent drama of the product’, it won many hearts. Very soon clients such as Pillsbury and Campbell Soup started coming in. By 1948, the annual billing exceeded $10 million.

Next in 1949, he was retained by Kellogg’s and by the following year the billing increased to $22 million per annum. However, it was in 1952, when Procter and Gamble chose him for his institutional campaign that Burnett knew that he had made it.