J. Walter Thompson Company

Headquartered in New York City, the J. Walter Thompson advertising (see entry under 1920s—Commerce in volume 2) agency is one of the world's largest, with more than 250 offices and affiliates in 88 countries. For half a century, from 1922 to 1972, it led the industry in billings (the amount of business done by an ad agency within a certain period of time). Founded in 1864 as Carlton & Smith, the agency was originally a broker of advertising space in religious periodicals. In 1877, William James Carlton (1838–1902), one of the original owners, sold the business to one of its employees, James Walter Thompson (1847–1928), for $500, plus $800 for the furniture. Over the next two decades, the J. Walter Thompson Company became the first full-service advertising agency. As a full-service agency, the company offered creative services like ad design and placement, package design, and logo design to its clients. One of its first logos, created in 1896, was the Rock of Gibraltar symbol for the Prudential Insurance Company, still in use.

During the first decades of the twentieth century, the company helped develop the catchy and concise advertising slogans that have since become a mainstay of consumer marketing. One of J. Walter Thompson's first successes was its 1912 campaign designed to convince women to use deodorant products, using the slogan "You can't vote. But you can smell nice." Under the director of Stanley Resor (1879–1962), who purchased the agency in 1916, J. Walter Thompson commissioned market-research studies and was the first agency to open a research department. These moves helped define the way the advertising industry has functioned ever since. In 1920, the agency hired John B. Watson (1878–1958), the noted behavioral psychologist, to assist in the development of campaigns that would appeal to basic human wants and needs.

After World War I (1914–18), the J. Walter Thompson Company began representing some of America's most familiar brand-name products, such as Libby's, Kraft, Aunt Jemima (see entry under 1900s—Commerce in volume 1), and Fleischmann's. Its clients sponsored many popular radio (see entry under 1920s—TV and Radio in volume 2) shows during the 1930s, complete with clever jingles that described their products in a few memorable lines. In 1947, one client, Kraft Foods, sponsored the first network television program, "The Kraft Television Theater." Other major clients have been the Ford Motor Company, Pan American Airways, Nestlé, Eastman Kodak, Warner-Lambert, Rolex, Merrill Lynch, and Wendy's (for whom it coined the "Where's the Beef?" slogan). In 1988, the year after it was sold to the WPP Group, J. Walter Thompson did $665 million in new business, a one-year record for the agency.

—Edward Moran

For More Information

Fox, Stephen R. The Mirror Makers: A History of American Advertising and Its Creators. New York: Morrow, 1997.

J. Walter Thompson Corporation.http://www.jwt.com (accessed January 18, 2002).

Meyers, William. The Image Makers: Power and Persuasion on Madison Avenue. New York: Times Books, 1984.

Sivulka, Juliann. Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes: A Cultural History of American Advertising. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1998.

Strasser, Susan. Satisfaction Guaranteed: The Making of the American Mass Market. New York: Pantheon Books, 1989.