Some Ads Age Better Than Others

Merrill Anderson produced this U.S. Trust ad in 1963. Illustrator John Northcross certainly flattered the investment thinkers. Today, alas, it looks like a meeting of the White Men In Suits Investment Club.

And not without reason. In 1963 even some of the trust company's female customers believed investing was, by its very nature, a man's world.

Happily, 1963 also featured transcontinental jets and an all-mighty dollar. Americans could live  lavishly as they drummed up business around the world. These Irving Trust ads still please the eye.

The Hardest Time to Invest

Disaster struck at 6:11 p.m. EST today – the world did not end. Skittish investors were left to face a looming fiscal cliff, a dysfunctional federal government. Surely this must be the hardest time to invest.

Yes, it is. It always is.

In this classic U.S. Trust ad from the December 29, 1962 issue of The New Yorker, the founder of the Merrill Anderson Company stated an eternal truth:

Investment decisions are always difficult, but always necessary.

A “Sound Service” . . . An “Inquisitive Organization”

These two ads appeared in The New Yorker just fifty years ago, September, 1962.

The U.S. Trust ad, prepared by The Merrill Anderson Co. and intended mainly for newspapers, looks drab compared with First National City's salute to the amazing classical structures of Baalbek.

The copy holds up, however. The headline, dealing with the psychology of investing, attracted considerable attention. Trust companies today continue to help the wealthy get their heads around their money.

What's Past Is . . . Prologue?

Enough of the Mad Men era. Let's move on to the advertising archives of 1982.

You know about the Great Bull Market that began thirty years ago. 1982, what a great time to invest!

Now turn your Hindsight Device  to "Off."

in 1982 the stock market had been declared dead and a recession had begun. To survive hard times, U.S. Trust expanded its banking operations. The strategy may have helped in the short run, but the future belonged to megabanks. Even The Bank of New York, a moderately-sized commercial bank founded by Alexander Hamilton, ended up merging with Mellon Bank. U.S. Trust became a wealth-management arm of Bank of America.

The greatest megabank was created by Sandy Weill. In 1998 Weill merged Travellers, which owned Salomon Smith Barney, with Citibank to form Citigroup. At that time Citigroup ranked as the largest financial services company in the world.

Citigroup barely survived the Great Recession. Now retired, Sandy Weill astonished the financial world this week by admitting megabanks were a mistake. We probably ought to bring back the Glass-Steagall era, Weill told CNBC, once again separating investment banks from commercial banks that hold federally-insured deposits. Wow!

Women of the 1960’s: It was Complicated

Mad Men ended its season last Sunday. We'll have to wait for season six to find out how Joan, Megan and Peggy cope with their careers and romances (relationships hadn't been invented yet).

 Meanwhile, this comparison will help illustrate the complexity of women's roles in the 1960's.

"The little woman." What did The Women Who Lunch do for the rest of the afternoon? Apparently they played bridge. Even when this Merrill Anderson ad for US Trust appeared in 1966, the image seemed dated and Merrill's copy condescending:

The man who introduces his wife to the Trust company – to observe and take part in his talks with them – is filling the role of a devoted and far-seeing husband.

But remember, in those days many a high-net-worth man was married to a woman who didn't know how to write a check. Often the men liked it that way. "You want my wife to talk with you? What if she learns my net worth? Good grief! Next thing, you'll be wanting to tell her my income."

Mad women. In the 1960's women found little welcome in many areas of business, especially banking and Wall Street. Advertising was something of an exception, and had been for decades.

In London in the 1920's, Dorothy Sayers worked for an ad agency. (So did the hero of her mysteries, Lord Peter Wimsey, in "Murder Must Advertise.") In New York, circa 1930, another Dorothy worked for Edwin Bird Wilson. So did young Merrill Anderson. They married, and in 1934 Merrill and Dorothy Anderson launched The Merrill Anderson Company.

In the 1960's, the really big news on Madison Avenue was a woman. Mary Wells Lawrence. Read her story and you'll appreciate the challenge faced by Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner: you can't make this stuff up.

Money in the Mad Men Era: New, Old, Turned On

Three ads from the summer of 1966:

New Money. The post-World-War-II boom raised the net worth of many a business and professional person to a level that suggested the need for investment advice. This U.S. Trust ad, prepared by The Merrill Anderson Company, seems simple enough. But look at the type-setting of the body copy. The first paragraph is tightly spaced, to avoid carrying a word (a widow) over to the fourth line. The second line of the second paragraph is loosely spaced, presumably to avoid hyphenating. Ad agencies obsessed over such things in those days. (And they did not have Adobe software to help them.)

Old Money. In the 1960s as today, New Money aspired to the trappings and patina of Old Money. Perhaps that's why this Chase Manhattan nest-egg ad features what surely was an Old Money avocation: mushroom hunting.

Curious detail: Photos in earlier nest-egg ads draw the eye to the individual, then lead you to notice his or her shackles and the nest egg. Here, the egg dominates the scene. Interpret the psychological implications as you will.

Turned-On Money. The VW van – which the maker kept insisting was a station wagon – became a 'Sixties icon. When trust-fund babies wanted to drop out, take off and turn on, they did it with this vehicle. Or so the popular notion had it.

VW was a star client of Doyle Dane Bernbach. Think of how superstar hedge-fund managers have shaken up the investment world. That's pretty much what Doyle Dane Bernbach did to Madison Avenue.