When I first got to New York in 1967, I was a little mod from London.
London was racially pretty much totally white, and everyone aspired to be middle class.
I got off the subway train in Manhattan and there was a poster of a little smiling black boy tucking into a huge sandwich, with the headline YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE JEWISH TO LOVE LEVYS: REAL JEWISH RYE.
I couldn’t believe you could run a poster like that.
You certainly couldn’t have run it in London.
A black child eating your product.
The word ‘JEWISH’ in the headline.
I went round the corner and there was a poster of a Chinaman eating a huge sandwich with the same headline.
Further on there was a poster of an Irish policeman eating a sandwich with the same headline.
Then a Red Indian eating a sandwich, and again the same headline.
I’d never seen advertising like this.
Instead of choosing only the best looking, most aspirational white models to grace the product, Bernbach had picked ethnic types.
He said (without saying it):
“We all know New York has the biggest Jewish population of any city in the US.
We all know New Yorkers won’t settle for anything but the best.
We all know New York is a helluva lot more exciting than whatever town you’re from.
Well New Yorkers think Levys is the best Rye bread you can get.”
Instead of pretending New York was whites only, he’s celebrated the fact that New York was more ethnically diverse than any other city in America, if not the world.
He’d turned the whole thing on its head.
Suddenly, thanks largely to Bernbach, cities all over the world wanted to be as cool as New York.
Everyone was desperately trying to find ethnic minorities to put in their ads.
Racial differences became something to be celebrated, not hidden.
Plain racially dominant white culture became dull and boring.
Racial differences became cool and interesting.
And largely because of Bill Bernbach.
Levys wasn’t the only campaign like this he did, just the first one I saw when I got off the plane.
For me, Bernbach did more for ethnic diversity than any patronising political speech.
That’s a little more important than just putting up the sales of a product don’t you think?
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“They used to call it Levy’s Rye Bread and I said let’s call it Levy’s Jewish Rye Bread. The client said to me ‘Let’s not do that, the people are liable to be antisemitic and won’t like that word’. Then I said, ‘For Godness sake, your name is Levy’s, they’re not going to mistake you for a high episcopalian”
Bill Bernbach said this in an interview in 1977. You might be familiar with it, Dave. It’s one of the very few he ever did.
In it, he also goes to explain how the client initially intended to advertise in the “New York Post” because it had a 80% Jewish circulation. Bernbach thought this was lazy thinking since Jewish people were used to get freshly baked bread from corner shops and wouldn’t be interested in packaged bread at all.
He convinced the client to advertise to a broader audience that wouldn’t know about the corner bakery. Hence this campaign.
It’s amazing that you got to see it running in New York.
Do you think this is still applies today? Social cohesion isn’t going to be changed by a poster or an advert.
I was thinking about your last post as well, if you are so driven and focused why waste all that effort on advertising, wouldn’t that energy be better spent else where so at least there is a chance of it having been worth it?
Well, imo, this is still one of the best ad campaigns I’ve ever seen. I’m 60 years old and ate Levy’s then and still do now. It’s a nice rye. But, most importantly, it stands for something: it’s New York Jewish rye. Of course, I’m an Italian guy who grew up in the Bronx, so I’ve lived with Jews all my life. They were always the soul of NYC, and Levy’s made that apparent. Only non-New Yorkers would be surprised by the campaign but that was part of the de-sensitization process that Bernbach was applying.
Terrific blog, btw. Look forward to every post.
Hi Borat. Advertising’s problem is that most people treat it as nothing but a trivial way to get rich.
But it doesn’t have to be that way,
Years ago Oxfam told a bunch of influential advertising people about the Third World debt crisis.
Oxfam said they couldn’t get involved themselves because it was a political issue, not a charitable one.
Most of the ad people forgot about it, but a few of us wanted to do something.
So since then, without a client, weve made about twenty commercials, plus posters,press ads, and a website, about the Third World debt crisis.
Production companies and photographers shot them for free, everyone involved contributes what they do for free, and media experts help find ways to run them for free.
If they win awards and get seen by creatives all over the world, word gets spread even more, and from nowhere it becomes an issue.
Everybody wins.
And we feel better about the business we’re in because we’re spreading the word about something important in a way no one else could.
Advertising is only trivial if you think it’s trivial.
“In this very real world, Good doesn’t drive away Evil. Evil doesn’t drive away Good. But the energetic displaces the passive. ” BB
As you highlight Dave, advertising is only trivial or vain if you think so. I would just add that Bill was a grand man and his virtue would have shone whatever he’d had put his talent into.
Hi J.
I didn’t know the story about not running the ads in The New York Post, that’s a pure creative leap.
Nowadays you’d need a brand consultancy, a strategy consultancy, and a media consultancy to work that out.
I have this DVD with the entire interview. It’s about 40 min and definitely worth watching.There’s probably a way to upload it to You tube and piss Omnicom about it. Let me sort it out and I’ll share the link with anyone who might be interested.
Hi J.
I was talking to David Abbott the other day and I told him Alfred North Whitehead’s quote, ” All philosophy is footnotes to Plato.”
We agreed that all advertising is footnotes to Bernbach.
Please let me know the link when you’ve got it.