E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. Advertising Dept.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company's Advertising Dept. was formed in September 1921, when the company was reorganized with a decentralized structure. Prior to that time, advertising had been a division of the Sales Dept., but when the sales function was decentralized, a central Advertising Dept. became necessary to coordinate advertising activities across product lines. The Advertising Dept. was renamed the Marketing Communications Dept. on January 1, 1980.

Du Pont's first advertisement was an item placed in a newspaper by E. I. du Pont in October 1804 announcing the availability of his gunpowder. In 1819, du Pont began advertising in the Philadelphia Gazette and Daily Advertiser. This campaign proved so successful that he began an extensive handbill advertising program. During the nineteenth century, however, the company's sales grew without the need for much advertising, but as DuPont began to diversify in the twentieth century, more advertising was needed. Around 1909, a director, William Coyne, asked Du Pont employee George H. Kerr to survey the advertising and publicity practices of other large industrial companies. Knerr engaged Samuel W. Long, a Philadelphia advertising and publicity agent, and spent about a year collecting and analysing the data. In April 1911, an Advertising Division was established within the Sales Dept., under George Frank Lord, formerly of the J. Walter Thompson agency. S. W. Long was engaged to handle publicity on retainer. Long mostly dealt with powder and dynamite advertising but also dealt with public relations issues emanating from the 1911-12 antitrust prosecution. Publicity was spun off to a new Publicity Bureau in 1916.

During and after World War I Du Pont expanded its product line to include dyes, plastics, rubber-coated fabrics, acids, heavy chemicals, pigments, paints, and varnishes. In 1921 the company was reorganized into a series of autonomous operating or industrial departments based on product lines and coordinated by a central corporate office, and advertising became a central staff or auxiliary department. Advertising Dept. representatives in each of the industrial departments worked with the central staff in creating ad campaigns.

There were also special units within the department for exhibits and trade shows, motion pictures, commercial art, direct-mail advertising, and export advertising. The department maintained its own printing plant. In 1916 the company established a permanent exhibit space opposite the Steel Pier in Atlantic City to showcase its products on the natural assumption that they would be seen by tourists and conventioneers from all over the country. This facility was discontinued in 1955 after Atlantic City began to decline and television provided a more effective advertising medium. During the same period the company also maintained smaller display facilities at its Wilmington headquarters, and later at its New York office in the Empire State Building. The department also published two employee and promotional magazines, the Du Pont Magazine beginning in 1913, and La Revista Du Pont for the (largely Latin American) export market in 1931.

The department also used outside advertising agencies, principally Batton, Barton, Durstein & Osborne, but also N.W. Ayer & Son and the Rumrill Company. BBDO was first hired in 1929 and was engaged continuously through the 1960s. The agency was responsible for the company's famous "Better things for better living" slogan.

Beginning in May 1926, the department held regular semiannual meetings called "advertising clinics", at which advertising would be analysed on a company-wide basis and specific problems in each product line identified. The clinics featured a keynote address by a senior company official and individual presentations by department personnel, representatives of advertising agencies and academic experts. The last advertising clinic was held in the fall of 1958.

Du Pont was primarily a manufacturer of producer or intermediate goods, such as industrial explosives, yarns, films, pigments, and bulk chemicals. As such, a large part of its advertising activity was aimed at industrial buyers through direct contact, trade magazines, and trade shows. However, Du Pont did make a few products that were sold directly to consumers, initially sporting and shooting powders, but later paint and anti-freeze. Consequently, the advertising campaigns for these products have often left the most tangible evidence. Du Pont also generated a large amount of advertising designed to persuade consumers that finished goods like apparel, domestic utensils, carpeting, or packaging made with Du Pont materials were superior to those of its competitors.

The Advertising Department was also charged with creating goodwill and a favorable image for the company, which had been tarnished by the Nye Committee "merchants of death" investigation of munitions companies in World War I. Advertising tended to present the company as a fountainhead of technical innovations that would improve the quality of life for the average citizen. This was particularly apparent in the company's public displays, particularly those at major expositions from the 1930s through the 1960s.

Public opinion was also a major factor behind the company's move to radio and television advertising. The first fully-sponsored program was the "Cavalcade of America," which began as a radio show in October 1935. Transferred to television in October 1952, the program ran 30-minute stories about historical figures who had made significant contributions to American life. The show went through several changes in format and presentation. It was renamed Du Pont Cavalcade Theater in August 1955, and Du Pont Theater for the following season. The program was replaced for the 1957 fall season by "The Du Pont Show of the Month," a 90-minute live dramatization of popular novels and short stories or abridged versions of plays and motion pictures which ran through 1961. From 1954 to 1957, Du Pont also sponsored a 15-minute program of sports scores and football predictions which showcased its "Zerex" and "Zerone" anti-freeze, research having shown that automotive products were bought almost exclusively by men. The company carefully monitored the performance of the programs and commercials and engaged in extensive psychological testing, opinion polling and ratings reviews.

From the description of Agency history record. (Hagley Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 122405694