Howard Luck Gossage

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Howard Luck Gossage (born August 30, 1917 in Chicago , † July 9, 1969 ) was an American copywriter and art director , who particularly in the 1960s in German-speaking countries and the United States caused a sensation with his critical comments about advertising excited. His most important book, Can Advertising Still Be Saved? , was initiated, translated and published by Barrows Mussey in Germany in 1967 after reading Gossages articles in various magazines. It was only twenty years after the surprising success in German-speaking countries that a publisher was found in the USA.

Life

Gossage was born in 1917. He studied at the Universities of Kansas City, Paris and Geneva. He was a fighter pilot in World War II . At the age of 36 he came across advertising. Gossage was a second marriage to Sally Kemp, a Broadway and film actress. He opened his agency Freeman, Mander & Gossage in 1957 in San Francisco. In 1969 he died of leukemia.

plant

Gossage's work captivates with its idiosyncratic way of writing and designing advertisements. The majority of the ads looked more like newspaper articles, consisted of a lot of text, usually with a picture, a title, which was often a complete sentence, and an obligatory coupon. Most of the ads were episodes of a series and were associated with a contest or other active participation by viewers. Gossage showed an unusual sensitivity to the state of the viewer and addressed them in a humorous way. He seemed to understand better than other advertisers the limits of advertising and managed to incorporate these findings into his work.

He realizes well-known advertising series for companies such as Eagle Shirtmakers, G. Heileman Brewing Company, Land-Rover , Petrofina , Qantas and Whiskey Distillers of Ireland. The first major international Swissair campaign also picked up on Gossage's ideas.

He organized an international paper airplane competition for the scientific journal Scientific American , which received almost 12,000 entries from all over the world.

With a series of three advertisements for the Sierra Club , Gossage managed to get Congress to drop plans for a Grand Canyon Dam.

influence

Gossage was friends with Marshall McLuhan , John Steinbeck , Tom Wolfe and Leopold Kohr . He is considered the discoverer of McLuhan, whom he invited to the USA for the first time for a lecture. He was also acquainted with advertising man David Ogilvy , whose Rolls Royce ad he satirized in a Land Rover ad and with whom he shared an aversion to outdoor advertising .

Books

  • Can advertising still be saved? Econ, Düsseldorf 1967, DNB 456786279 . (Second edition Hörzu, Hamburg 1987, OCLC 314659920 )
    • English: Is there any hope for advertising? University of Illinois Press, Chicago 1987. ( Republished as The Book of Gossage. Copy Workshop, Chicago 1995 and 2006, ISBN 1-887229-28-0 ).
  • with Jerry Mander and George Dipple: Paper airplanes: models to fold yourself . dtv, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-423-10050-8 .
    • English: with Jerry Mander and George Dipple: The Great International Paper Airplane Book. Galahad Books, 1998, ISBN 1-57866-028-9 .
  • Power and impotence of advertising. Nadolski publishing house, Karlsruhe 1970, DNB 456786260

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gossage, Howard Luck
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American copywriter and art director
DATE OF BIRTH August 30, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago
DATE OF DEATH July 9, 1969