Several Of The Major Advertising Agencies In The United States

All the top advertising agencies formerly were based in New York, along famous Madison Avenue in the middle of Manhattan’s financial district. If you watch the HBO show Mad Men (since acquired by another network in syndication) you will notice the fictional characters being employed at fictional agencies on Madison Avenue, thus the term “Mad” Men. In the 50s and 60s the leading advertising firms were all operated by men and it was a total boy’s club that ladies were not permitted to enter, except as assistants or receptionists. These men chain smoked at their desks all day long and drank very much every night while wining and dining customers at fancy restaurants and bars.

Those days are long gone and many are glad for that, particularly ladies and minorities who at present play a much bigger role in today’s major advertising agencies. Things have changed dramatically in the last two decades. Graphic Designers were always dealt with like technical flunkies and were often not granted the opportunity to rise above Art Director position. All of the Creative Directors (CDs) came from the copywriting departments and once you were a CD, you could hope to make partner or V.P. with some years of extremely long hours and efforts under your belt.

Today’s major advertising agencies are ones that have made it in the age of the internet and have modified their services to suit the cyber world’s big demands. Thirty years ago advertising agencies did not even have computers. Typesetting was carried out manually with press on type that you bought at the Art supplies store. Typefaces were restricted and you must be very careful that you didn’t mess up or else you had to start once again. God forbid that the Account Executive or perhaps the customer changed the headline at the very last minute. Deadlines were extremely tight back in the former days and you had to manually crank out fifty to one hundred ads in one day (and all night) for distribution the next morning to the newspapers.

Of course these days all of the top advertising firms have got cutting edge computer systems, mostly Mac but a few PCs too. The employed small armies of Graphic Designers that use software like InDesign and Photoshop CS.

Most of the major advertising firms now also carry out online ads and that shows that the artists have to have proficiency in HTML, Flash, Dreamweaver, as well as other site building software. By being so technical several of the artistic side of the craft has surely suffered. But because the airwaves are slammed and stuffed with so many visuals and loud attention hogging banners, the leading advertising agencies have to be a little more imaginative than previously in their attempt to acquire their client’s message through to their target viewers. The majority of advertising campaigns cost a great deal that the ad agencies utilize focus groups to receive responses before spending any money.

Despite the fact that techniques and technologies have developed over time, the goal of major advertising companies around the world have stayed the same and that’s sell more products for their customers.

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