1 8 Lasker, Resor, Rubicam, Burnett, Hopkins and Bernbach Six giants who invented modern advertising y confining my selection of giants to those who are dead, I avoid the B embarrassment of choosing among my partners – and my contemporaries in other agencies. What, if anything, did these six giants have in common? All six of them were American. All six had other jobs before they went into advertising. At least five were gluttons for work, and uncompromising perfectionists. Four made their reputations as copywriters. Only three had university degrees. ALBERT LASKER 1880-1952 Albert Lasker made more money than anyone in the history of the advertising business. And spent more. And got his money’s worth. The son of a prosperous German immigrant, he started his career as a reporter on the Galveston Morning News, covering sports, crime, religious services, theater, business and politics. When he was 18 his father got him a job at the Lord & Thomas agency in Chicago. At first he had to clean out the spittoons, but quickly became a champion canvasser for new business, criss-crossing the Midwest by train, buggy and sleigh. When he was 20 he bought Lord & Thomas, and remained its head until he retired 44 years later. Lasker was more than an advertising man. In 1918 he came under the influence of Theodore Roosevelt, and this led to his taking four years off as the head of propaganda for the Republican Party and later the chairman of the Shipping Board. In those days he was a militant isolationist, but he lived to become one of Wendell Wilkie’s strongest supporters in the One World movement, and did everything he could to