A typical Leo Burnett advertisement. Note the posterized layout. After working his way through college writing show cards for a department store, Leo landed a job as a reporter on the Peoria Journal. Later, he joined the advertising department of Cadillac, from which he went to an agency in Indianapolis. After ten years there, he joined Erwin Wasey as copy chief, and in 1935 set up his own agency in Chicago. But it wasn’t until he was 60 that Leo hit his stride. It was as if he suddenly turned on his after-burners. By the time he died, 20 years later, his agency had become the biggest in the world outside New York. He was the leader of the ‘Chicago school’ of advertising – which was his invention. Here is how he told the story: