Clyde Badell Reveals Powerful Advertising Secrets In His Famous 1959 London Lectures

In 1958 and 1959 The United States and Great Britain were gripped in a bitter recession. Advertisers were struggling and going out of business. Budgets were cut and sales plummeted. Then, as now, the vast bulk of advertising was mind-boggling and wasteful. It failed to meet even the minimum standards vast research proves are necessary to achieve maximum sales results and profits. Roy Thomson, the enlightened maverick Canadian, and at the time publisher of the Scotsman, was keenly aware of this fact: the way to sell more advertising tomorrow is to help existing and potential advertisers avoid costly errors and use the medium with utmost effectiveness today. (Thomson later went on to acquire the London Times, The Sunday Times and dozens of regional newspapers, ultimately owning the largest media empire in Europe.) Consistent with Thomson’s philosophy, The Scotsman engaged Clyde Badell, top-ten copywriter, author and international consultant, to present “The Advertising Job,” which came to be known as the “London Lectures.”