Albert Lasker
Encyclopedia
Albert Davis Lasker was an American businessman who is often considered to be the founder of modern advertising
. He was born in Freiburg
, Germany
when his American parents Morris and Nettie Heidenheimer Davis Lasker were visiting their homeland; he was raised in Galveston, Texas
, where Morris was the president of several banks.
reporter while a teenager, but his father persuaded him to move to Chicago
to try an advertising position at Lord & Thomas advertising agency
, which he did in 1898. After he worked as an office boy for a year, one of the agency's salesmen left, and Lasker acquired his territory. It was during this time that Lasker created his first campaign
. He hired a friend, Eugene Katz, to write the copy for a series of Wilson Ear Drum Company ads. They featured a photograph of a man cupping his ear. George Wilson, president of the Ear Drum company, adopted the ads and sales increased.
Chicago, along with New York, was the center of the nation's advertising industry. Lasker, known as the "father of modern advertising" made Chicago his base 1898-1942. As head of the Lord and Thomas agency, Lasker devised a copywriting technique that appealed directly to the psychology of the consumer. Women seldom smoked cigarettes; he told them if they smoked Lucky Strikes they could stay slender. Lasker's use of radio, particularly with his campaigns for Palmolive soap, Pepsodent toothpaste, Kotex products, and Lucky Strike cigarettes, not only revolutionized the advertising industry but also significantly changed popular culture.
and who now promised to tell him what advertising was. Lasker believed that advertising was news, but Kennedy said to him that, "news is a technique of presentation, but advertising is a very simple thing. I can give it to you in three words, it is "salesmanship in print.""
The first client they put this principle to work on was The 1900 Washer Co. Such was the success of this, that within four months of running the first ad their advertising spend went from $15,000 a year to $30,000 a month and within six months were one of the three or four largest advertisers in the nation.
In 1908 he recruited Claude C. Hopkins
to the firm specifically to work on The Van Camp Packaging Company (Van Camp's
) account. The relationship lasted for 17 years.
Lasker is largely responsible for America's infatuation with orange juice
. Lord & Thomas acquired the Sunkist Growers, Incorporated
account in 1910, when Lasker was 30. The citrus industry was in a slump, and California
growers were producing so many oranges
that they were cutting down trees in order to limit supply. Lasker created campaigns that not only encouraged consumers to eat oranges, but also to drink orange juice. He was able to increase consumption enough that the growers stopped chopping down their groves.
Among Lasker's pioneering contributions were the introduction into schools of classes that would explain to young girls about menstruation
(done to promote Kotex
tampons). He is also credited as being the inventor of the soap opera
, with being responsible for the fact that radio (and television after it) is an advertising-driven medium, and with having masterminded Warren G. Harding
's election campaign in 1920
.
baseball
team. He acquired an interest in the team in 1916 then soon purchased majority control. Lasker was the original planner for the Lasker Plan, a report that recommended baseball's governing authority be reformed which led to the creation of the office of the Commissioner of Baseball
, and was responsible, along with his business partner, Charles Weeghman
, for moving the Cubs into the club's current home, Wrigley Field
. In 1925, he sold the team to one of his minor partners, William Wrigley Jr.
Lasker was also the second-largest shareholder in the Pepsodent
company, which had become a L&T client in 1916. It was sold to Lever Brothers
in 1944.
He also owned one of finest golf courses in the world. The National Golf Review in 1939 had Lasker Golf Course in Lake Forest
, Illinois
listed in the No. 23 slot on its list of Top 100 Courses in the World. Lasker Golf Course was built on his private estate, Mill Road Farm. It was eventually perceived as too opulent and following the depression, Lasker donated the entire property to the University of Chicago
.
appealed for votes in newsreels, billboards and newspaper ads.
On June 13, 1921 President Harding appointed Lasker, a cash donor to the Harding campaign, to chairman of the United States Shipping Board
. Controversy ensued, as a congressional investigation revealed that during Lasker's tenure as shipping chairman many valuable U.S. steel cargo ships worth $200 to $250 a ton were sold as low at $30 a ton to private American shipping firms without an appraisal board. Lasker, who had no previous experience in the shipping business before his appointment, resigned from office on July 1, 1923.
joined the Lord & Thomas advertising firm in 1933 and worked there until 1942 when he moved to Los Angeles
and became a Hollywood film producer
and practiced law
. At that time, after 30 years as its chief executive, Albert sold the firm to three senior executives, and it became Foote, Cone & Belding
in 1942.
Lasker—and especially his wife Mary Lasker
—were nationally prominent philanthropists who played major roles in promoting and expanding the National Institutes of Health
, helping its budget expand by a factor of 2000 times from $2.4 million in 1945 to $5.5 billion in 1985. Many leading scientists and researchers have been awarded the prestigious Lasker Award. On May 30, 1952 he died in New York at the age of 73. Albert Lasker is interred in a private mausoleum at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
in Sleepy Hollow
, NY.
. He used his great wealth to create and fund the Lasker Foundation to support philanthropic
causes, particularly in the area of medical research. The Lasker Award
s are named for him; eighty Lasker laureates have received a Nobel Prize
.
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
. He was born in Freiburg
Freiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In the extreme south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
when his American parents Morris and Nettie Heidenheimer Davis Lasker were visiting their homeland; he was raised in Galveston, Texas
Galveston, Texas
Galveston is a coastal city located on Galveston Island in the U.S. state of Texas. , the city had a total population of 47,743 within an area of...
, where Morris was the president of several banks.
Early career
He started out as a newspaperNewspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
reporter while a teenager, but his father persuaded him to move to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
to try an advertising position at Lord & Thomas advertising agency
Advertising agency
An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services...
, which he did in 1898. After he worked as an office boy for a year, one of the agency's salesmen left, and Lasker acquired his territory. It was during this time that Lasker created his first campaign
Advertising campaign
An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication...
. He hired a friend, Eugene Katz, to write the copy for a series of Wilson Ear Drum Company ads. They featured a photograph of a man cupping his ear. George Wilson, president of the Ear Drum company, adopted the ads and sales increased.
CEO Lord & Thomas
When Lord retired in 1903, Lasker purchased his share and became a partner. He purchased the firm in 1912 at the age of 32.Chicago, along with New York, was the center of the nation's advertising industry. Lasker, known as the "father of modern advertising" made Chicago his base 1898-1942. As head of the Lord and Thomas agency, Lasker devised a copywriting technique that appealed directly to the psychology of the consumer. Women seldom smoked cigarettes; he told them if they smoked Lucky Strikes they could stay slender. Lasker's use of radio, particularly with his campaigns for Palmolive soap, Pepsodent toothpaste, Kotex products, and Lucky Strike cigarettes, not only revolutionized the advertising industry but also significantly changed popular culture.
Salesmanship in print
Lasker had an inquiring mind about what advertising was and how it worked. In 1904 he met John E. Kennedy who had been a Canadian mounted policemenRoyal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
and who now promised to tell him what advertising was. Lasker believed that advertising was news, but Kennedy said to him that, "news is a technique of presentation, but advertising is a very simple thing. I can give it to you in three words, it is "salesmanship in print.""
The first client they put this principle to work on was The 1900 Washer Co. Such was the success of this, that within four months of running the first ad their advertising spend went from $15,000 a year to $30,000 a month and within six months were one of the three or four largest advertisers in the nation.
In 1908 he recruited Claude C. Hopkins
Claude C. Hopkins
Claude C. Hopkins was one of the great advertising pioneers, he believed advertising existed only to sell something and should be measurable and justify the results that it produced....
to the firm specifically to work on The Van Camp Packaging Company (Van Camp's
Van Camp's
Van Camp’s is a brand of canned beans currently owned by ConAgra Foods, Inc. Their products typically consist of beans stewed in a flavored sauce...
) account. The relationship lasted for 17 years.
Lasker is largely responsible for America's infatuation with orange juice
Orange juice
Orange juice is a popular beverage made from oranges. It is made by extraction from the fresh fruit, by desiccation and subsequent reconstitution of dried juice, or by concentration of the juice and the subsequent addition of water to the concentrate...
. Lord & Thomas acquired the Sunkist Growers, Incorporated
Sunkist Growers, Incorporated
Sunkist Growers, Incorporated is a citrus grower's non-stock membership cooperative composed of 6,000 members from California and Arizona. It is headquartered in the Sherman Oaks district of Los Angeles.-History:...
account in 1910, when Lasker was 30. The citrus industry was in a slump, and California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
growers were producing so many oranges
Orange (fruit)
An orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus Citrus × sinensis and its fruit. It is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world....
that they were cutting down trees in order to limit supply. Lasker created campaigns that not only encouraged consumers to eat oranges, but also to drink orange juice. He was able to increase consumption enough that the growers stopped chopping down their groves.
Among Lasker's pioneering contributions were the introduction into schools of classes that would explain to young girls about menstruation
Menstruation
Menstruation is the shedding of the uterine lining . It occurs on a regular basis in sexually reproductive-age females of certain mammal species. This article focuses on human menstruation.-Overview:...
(done to promote Kotex
Kotex
Kotex is a brand of feminine hygiene products, which includes the Kotex maxi, thin and ultra thin pads, the Security tampons, and the Lightdays pantiliners. Most recently, the company has added U by Kotex to its line of feminine hygiene products...
tampons). He is also credited as being the inventor of the soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
, with being responsible for the fact that radio (and television after it) is an advertising-driven medium, and with having masterminded Warren G. Harding
Warren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States . A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential self-made newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate , as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S. Senator...
's election campaign in 1920
United States presidential election, 1920
The United States presidential election of 1920 was dominated by the aftermath of World War I and a hostile response to certain policies of Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic president. The wartime economic boom had collapsed. Politicians were arguing over peace treaties and the question of America's...
.
Business interests
Lasker owned the Chicago CubsChicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...
baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
team. He acquired an interest in the team in 1916 then soon purchased majority control. Lasker was the original planner for the Lasker Plan, a report that recommended baseball's governing authority be reformed which led to the creation of the office of the Commissioner of Baseball
Commissioner of Baseball
The Commissioner of Baseball is the chief executive of Major League Baseball and its associated minor leagues. Under the direction of the Commissioner, the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball hires and maintains the sport's umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, and television contracts...
, and was responsible, along with his business partner, Charles Weeghman
Charles Weeghman
Charles H. Weeghman was one of the founders of the short-lived major league baseball organization called the Federal League . He had made a fortune in an early type of fast-food franchises in the Chicago area.Weeghman worked for Charlie King as a waiter for $10 a week...
, for moving the Cubs into the club's current home, Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field is a baseball stadium in Chicago, Illinois, United States that has served as the home ballpark of the Chicago Cubs since 1916. It was built in 1914 as Weeghman Park for the Chicago Federal League baseball team, the Chicago Whales...
. In 1925, he sold the team to one of his minor partners, William Wrigley Jr.
William Wrigley Jr.
William Wrigley Jr. was a U.S. chewing gum industrialist. He was founder and eponym of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company in 1891. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
Lasker was also the second-largest shareholder in the Pepsodent
Pepsodent
Pepsodent is a brand of toothpaste with a minty flavour derived from Sassafras. The brand is owned by Unilever, but in 2003 the rights to the brand in the United States and Canada were bought by Church and Dwight....
company, which had become a L&T client in 1916. It was sold to Lever Brothers
Lever Brothers
Lever Brothers was a British manufacturer founded in 1885 by William Hesketh Lever and his brother, James Darcy Lever . The brothers had invested in and promoted a new soap making process invented by chemist William Hough Watson, it was a huge success...
in 1944.
He also owned one of finest golf courses in the world. The National Golf Review in 1939 had Lasker Golf Course in Lake Forest
Lake Forest, Illinois
Lake Forest is an affluent city located in Lake County, Illinois, United States. The city is south of Waukegan along the shore of Lake Michigan, and is a part of the Chicago metropolitan area and the North Shore. Lake Forest was founded around Lake Forest College and was laid out as a town in...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
listed in the No. 23 slot on its list of Top 100 Courses in the World. Lasker Golf Course was built on his private estate, Mill Road Farm. It was eventually perceived as too opulent and following the depression, Lasker donated the entire property to the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
.
Politics and controversy
Lasker was an active Republican who showed the party how to use modern advertising techniques to sell their candidates. He was a key advisor in the 1920 Harding campaign, which resulted in one of the largest landslides in history, as Warren G. HardingWarren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States . A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential self-made newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate , as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S. Senator...
appealed for votes in newsreels, billboards and newspaper ads.
On June 13, 1921 President Harding appointed Lasker, a cash donor to the Harding campaign, to chairman of the United States Shipping Board
United States Shipping Board
The United States Shipping Board was established as an emergency agency by the Shipping Act , 7 September 1916. It was formally organized 30 January 1917. It was sometimes referred to as the War Shipping Board.http://www.gwpda.org/wwi-www/Hurley/bridgeTC.htm | The Bridge To France by Edward N....
. Controversy ensued, as a congressional investigation revealed that during Lasker's tenure as shipping chairman many valuable U.S. steel cargo ships worth $200 to $250 a ton were sold as low at $30 a ton to private American shipping firms without an appraisal board. Lasker, who had no previous experience in the shipping business before his appointment, resigned from office on July 1, 1923.
Sale of Lord and Thomas
His son, EdwardEdward Lasker (businessman)
Edward Lasker was an American businessman and Thoroughbred racehorse owner.He was one of the three children of Flora Warner and her husband, Albert Davis Lasker , the owner of Lord & Thomas, a highly successful Chicago advertising agency, who was also the owner of the Chicago Cubs Major League...
joined the Lord & Thomas advertising firm in 1933 and worked there until 1942 when he moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and became a Hollywood film producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
and practiced law
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
. At that time, after 30 years as its chief executive, Albert sold the firm to three senior executives, and it became Foote, Cone & Belding
Foote, Cone & Belding
Draftfcb is one of the largest global advertising agency networks. It is owned by Interpublic Group and was formed by the 2006 merger of Foote, Cone & Belding and Draft. Although the merger of the two agencies is fairly young, the origins of Draftfcb date back to 1873, with the opening of Lord &...
in 1942.
Lasker—and especially his wife Mary Lasker
Mary Lasker
Mary Woodard Lasker was an American health activist. She worked to raise funds for medical research, and founded the Lasker Foundation....
—were nationally prominent philanthropists who played major roles in promoting and expanding the National Institutes of Health
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...
, helping its budget expand by a factor of 2000 times from $2.4 million in 1945 to $5.5 billion in 1985. Many leading scientists and researchers have been awarded the prestigious Lasker Award. On May 30, 1952 he died in New York at the age of 73. Albert Lasker is interred in a private mausoleum at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York is the resting place of numerous famous figures, including Washington Irving, whose story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is set in the adjacent Old Dutch Burying Ground. Incorporated in 1849 as Tarrytown Cemetery, it posthumously honored Irving's...
in Sleepy Hollow
Sleepy Hollow
-Fiction:* The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, an 1819 short story by Washington Irving* Sleepy Hollow , a 1998 adaptation of Washington Irving's short story* Sleepy Hollow , a 1999 movie by Tim Burton...
, NY.
Legacy, Lasker Awards
Albert Lasker was voted to the American National Business Hall of FameAmerican National Business Hall of Fame
The American National Business Hall of Fame , established in 1972, as the result of an idea by Willard F. Rockwell, Jr. and Alan Hilburg...
. He used his great wealth to create and fund the Lasker Foundation to support philanthropic
Philanthropy
Philanthropy etymologically means "the love of humanity"—love in the sense of caring for, nourishing, developing, or enhancing; humanity in the sense of "what it is to be human," or "human potential." In modern practical terms, it is "private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of...
causes, particularly in the area of medical research. The Lasker Award
Lasker Award
The Lasker Awards have been awarded annually since 1946 to living persons who have made major contributions to medical science or who have performed public service on behalf of medicine. They are administered by the Lasker Foundation, founded by advertising pioneer Albert Lasker and his wife Mary...
s are named for him; eighty Lasker laureates have received a Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
.
External links
- Lasker Foundation
- Albert Lasker Papers at the Rare Book & Manuscript LibraryRare Book & Manuscript LibraryThe Columbia University's Rare Book & Manuscript Library is located on the 6th Floor of Columbia University's Butler Library. The library holds the special collections of Columbia University, as well as the Columbia University Archives. The range of the library's holdings spans more than 4,000...
at Columbia UniversityColumbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the... - Ingham, John N. Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders (1983) Greenwood Press ISBN 978-0-313-23910-6
- Cappo, Joe "The Future of Advertising" (2003) McGraw-HillMcGraw-HillThe McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., is a publicly traded corporation headquartered in Rockefeller Center in New York City. Its primary areas of business are financial, education, publishing, broadcasting, and business services...
ISBN 0-07-140315-9. See page 24.