A great mate of mine, Ray Beatty, writes “The Marketeer” column for the Melbourne Herald Sun and, in a recent column, he talked about the legendary British advertising man David Abbott. There’s a lot for us to learn so here’s what Ray had to say…

I’m always whingeing about the poor standards of today’s advertising – how in the rush into new technologies we seem to have left behind the skills of the past. To see what I mean, take a look at David Abbott’s advertisements from 20 or 30 years ago. He was able to give them elegance and class, but still sell product.

When you hear “advertising” you evoke images of screaming pitchmen, anxious mums, cars on the Ocean Road in eternal helicopter shots, models with manic grins and waving cardboard hands, and always price.

How could someone who refused to do all these things build the world’s third-largest advertising agency, and Britain’s biggest?

To do that you have to be very good, and David Abbott was – the greatest copywriter of his generation, say several UK obituaries. He died last week at 75.

A number of his ads reached us here in Australia, and certainly his influence did.

In the 60s he travelled to New York where he worked under Bill Bernbach and then David Ogilvy – the two top copywriters of their own generation, if not the century. A couple of years later back in London he formed the agency that became Abbott Mead Vickers.

Determined that advertising could be ethical, they refused to take cigarette – or toy ads, believing that children’s “pester power” was wrong. Then, when the country hit a slump, he would not make any staff redundant.

As it was, the great products found them. You may remember seeing his Vovo ad: “If the welding isn’t strong enough the car will fall on the writer”. It depicted a red vovo suspended by a wire around the door post, with Abbott himself lying beneath. No Photoshop, this was the real thing – Abbott insisted on that.

With Sainsbury’s supermarkets he demonstrated that you don’t need a screaming barra’ boy tossing bargains. The One Show Hall of Fame, New York, described his approach to supermarkets: “Know your product, respect your audience, trust your intuition. Watch how people buy things, even listen if you can. By all means think about their deep-seated motivations but don’t get entwined in them. Treat your audience as you would like to be treated.”

Or as David Ogilvy said a generation before: “The consumer isn’t a moron, she’s your wife”.

An example from 1982: “Just when you thought you understood Brie, Sainsbury’s create delicious confusion.” It gives a brief history of French and German brie with beautiful shots of four wedges. Not your usual cheese ad.

Over the years you must have noticed the witty one-line quotes in a red square, for The Economist. This campaign was created by Abbott, and the style has continued ever since. His most famous quote: “I never read The Economist.” Management trainee. Aged 42.

Even his shocking ads were dignified. One newspaper spread depicts a tied black plastic bag, the headline: “This doggy bag contains a dead doggy”. It’s an ad for the RSPCA of course, urging people to think more carefully about how they let their dogs become strays.

Even in retirement he kept busy as ever, writing a novel and bringing his second to completion – literally – at death-knock.

He mounted his own little campaign, in support for independent bookshops that he could see were being crushed by the chain store giants.

In a YouTube talk he says he lives close to three independent bookshops and spends some of his favourite hours browsing and conversing.

“I’m rather hoping that heaven will be a cul-de-sac of independent bookshops, interspersed with French, Italian and Thai restaurants.” If so, they have just acquired a favourite new customer.”

Blog: themarketeer-raybeatty.blogspot.com