What's Better, Faster or Slower?

By this time, almost all of us have seen at least one of these commercials, and I don't know about you but I love them.  The werewolf(posted above) has to be one of my all time favorite commercials.  For the longest time though, I've wondered if they were truly just kids being kids, or if they are scripted.

After doing some research I was able to find out that they are a little bit of both.  

These ads have really set a path of advertising for AT&T for some time to come, and in my opinion, it is because of the simplicity and realism of them that make them such a huge hit.  That's why I was actually a little nervous while researching them. I didn't want to be disappointed and find out that they were all child actors and scripted situations.  Well, it turns out that geniuses over at the advertising agency empire BBDO, just film a lot of different children for a lot of different hours till they strike gold.  The agency will film five different groups of four kids in one day. Throw in the main man, Beck Bennett, as the kid's moderator and you have got yourself a recipe for success.  Every once in awhile Bennett may have to throw a scripted question at the kids to get the ball rolling and let the kids bounce off of each other's energy. For example, the girl in the "candy island" commercial(below) may have been prompted to say it "but then suddenly they're all sparking to this idea.. What we ended up with was nothing like what we had on paper. And look at 'Werewolf'  There's no way you could come up with anything that wonderful. That's Diana going nuts in her own head."

Well now that I know that these awesome commercials aren't scripted, I was curious to learn more about the brains behind these gems.  Turns out BBDO has roots back to 1891 with George Batten's Batten Company.  Later in 1928, through a merger of BDO (Barton, Durstine & Osborn) and Batten Co. the agency became BBDO. Since then, their philosophy of "The Work The Work The Work," has gotten them clients such as PepsiCo, AT&T, Campbell's, HBO, Mercedes, and so many more major companies.  They believe that "At BBDO, the Work encompasses every kind of creative content that can touch the consumer and reinforce the brand." 

Batten opened his one room ad agency, with one employee and no clients, in 1891 and by 1894 Batten's is the first agency to install in-house printing. Between 1906 and 1918, Batten's moved to a 5000 sq/ft office, expanded to 50+ employees, acquired the Hammermill Paper Co. and Armstrong Cork Company(who is  now their oldest client). In 1918, Mr. Batten passed away, making William H. Jones the president of Batten's.

In 1919 The Barton & Durstine agency opens January 1 at 25 W 45th St., with Bruce Barton as president and Roy Durstine as secretary- treasurer. In August, Alex Osborn joins the agency, rename Barten, Durstine & Osborn.

Less than a decade later, in 1928, the companies merged forces and made the empire that is still known as Batten, Barton, Durstine, & Osborn, or BBDO.

Between 1928 and 1957, the company underwent a lot changes with management, from Durstine leaving and opening his own agency to Jim Jordan being president(who started in the mailroom), and in 1947 it was Osborn who was responsible for the idea of "brainstorming". 

In 1960 BBDO picked up accounts with Chrysler and PepsiCo, and it was here that the "Pepsi Generation" was born.  In fact, BBDO is not only reponsible for the success of Pepsi Cola, but for introducing the concept of a product being identified by it's customer's attitudes and lifestyles, rather than othe product itself.  This is major in itself.  Look at products today.  Many of them to this day still use this tactic.  Apple plays to the "hip" crowd.  Subuaru plays to families and uses love as their motto. GoPro is for those who live on the edge and outdoors.  The list goes on and on.

To this day, BBDO, continues to revolutonize advertising with gems such as their AT&T TV spots, or their infamous Snickers ad in 2010 featuring Betty White(which happened to win them 

the "USA Today SuperBowl Ad Meter" award.

So from 1891-2013, BBDO has been winning the advertising race, revolutionizing it along the way. I guess if you ask them what's better? They would definitely agree with the young Miss Diane and her werewolf theory, that being faster, is always better.