 2007
Lifetime Achievement:
Thomas J. Burrell
Congratulations to this year’s Lifetime Achievement
Award recipient Thomas J. Burrell.
Thomas J. Burrell, founder and chairman emeritus of
Burrell, one of the nation’s leading African-American
owned full-service communications agencies, is a
marketing communications pioneer.
This Chicago native set the standard for effectively
reaching African-American consumers by creating
advertising, particularly in television, that accurately
reflected their values, lifestyles and aspirations.
Coining the phrase, "Black people are not
dark-skinned white people," he has been a leader and
change agent in one of the most important movements in
marketing: the move from mass marketing to more
effective targeted marketing.
Mr. Burrell and his team convinced McDonald’s and
later Coca-Cola, two major television advertisers, that
this medium could be used to more effectively reach the
black consumer market. The TV ads depicting black
"positive realism" proved to have an extraordinary
effect on the segment without "turning off" white
viewers. This changed the face of television
advertising, because in many instances the ads proved to
be as popular with white audiences as the primary
target.
Mr. Burrell’s reputation for breaking barriers in the
industry began in 1961, while he was still an
undergraduate student at Roosevelt University. He became
the first African-American to work at a Chicago
advertising agency when Wade Advertising’s management
made the decision to hire him as a mailroom clerk. That
was the only opening he needed. He used the opportunity
to learn as much as he could about the industry and the
agency’s business. The young Mr. Burrell found a way to
share his creative ideas with Wade’s creative director.
This encounter quickly won him a junior copywriter
position, assigned to the Robin Hood All-Purpose Flour
and Alka-Seltzer accounts. After three and a half years,
Mr. Burrell moved on to a copywriting position at Leo
Burnett, became a copy supervisor at the London office
of Foote Cone & Belding, and later a creative supervisor
at Needham Harper & Steers in Chicago.
In 1971, his entrepreneurial spirit emerged and he
opened Burrell McBain Advertising with business partner
Emmett McBain and one assistant. The fledgling agency
had little capital, but considerable talent. McDonald’s,
the agency’s first major client, came aboard in 1972,
and Coca-Cola soon followed.
Since 1971, the agency has experienced steady growth,
and its client roster consists of McDonald's, Procter &
Gamble, Toyota, General Mills, Verizon, Marriott
International, and Lexus.
In 2005 Mr. Burrell received the industry’s highest
award when the American Advertising Federation inducted
him into the esteemed Advertising Hall of Fame. Another
true testament to the Agency’s success was the honor of
having 30 years of Coca-Cola advertising, produced by
Burrell, recognized for its historical and
anthropological significance when, in 2003, that body of
work was entered into the archives of the Library of
Congress.
The Chicago advertising community honored Mr. Burrell
as "Advertising Person of the Year" for 1985-86
with the coveted Albert Lasker Award for lifetime
achievement in advertising. In 1990, he received the
Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in
Journalism from the University of Missouri School of
Journalism. Advertising Age named him one of the
"50 Who Made a Difference" in its Spring 1995
special issue, "50 Years of TV Advertising." In
its 1999 special issue, "The Advertising Century,"
Advertising Age designated him one of the "Top
100 Advertising People" who have shaped the course
of advertising history.
Well-known and highly respected in the marketing
communications community, Mr. Burrell is a former member
of the American Advertising Federation (AAF) Board of
Directors. He is a former co-chair of the AAF
Foundation’s Standing Committee on Diversity and the AAF
Board Taskforce on Diversity and Multicultural
Advertising. He is a former director-at-large for the Ad
Council, Inc. and has served on the National Advertising
Review Board, the American Association of Advertising
Agencies (AAAA) Committee on Agency Management and
Government Relations, and on the 1991-1992 AAAA National
Board of Directors. He is a past chairman of the Chicago
Council of the AAAA. He is a member of the Advisory
Council of Howard University’s John H. Johnson School of
Communications. Students learn about advertising careers
through the school’s Thomas J. Burrell Chapter of the
AAF.
In addition to all of the industry awards and
recognitions, Mr. Burrell has been recognized by many
local organizations including Rainbow PUSH, A.B.L.E,
N’Digo Magazine and the DuSable Museum, just to name a
few.
Mr. Burrell retired in 2003, and serves as a
consultant to the Agency that bears his name. He refers
to himself as, not retired, but, "re-wired". He
currently serves on the Board of the Chicago Lighthouse
for the Blind, and is pursuing his passion as a jazz
vocalist.
The first time he ever performed on stage as a
vocalist was three years ago, at the age of 63. It
started with his enrollment in a jazz vocalist class
with David Bloom and Spider Saloff at the Bloom School
of Jazz. The class culminated in a Saturday afternoon
live performance at Chicago’s fabled Jazz Showcase. From
there, he had the good fortune to sing with the popular
and highly-respected Gentlemen of Leisure band. From
there, he continued to develop with participation in a
Butch Stewart musical review at Northwestern
University’s Pick-Staiger Auditorium, and then various
private parties, open mike nights at local clubs and an
appearance at ETA’s "Music Monday" followed. He was the
featured performer at ETA’s November 13, 2006 Music
Monday event.
In addition to singing, Mr. Burrell writes lyrics and
has begun working on a couple of book ideas.
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