Tom Burrell

advertising executive

Personal Information

Born Thomas Jason Burrell on March 18, 1939, in Chicago, Illinois; married Barbara Aldridge, 1968 (divorced 1979); married Joli Owens, 1989 (divorced 2005); children (first marriage): Alexandra, Jason
Education: Roosevelt University, BA, English, 1962.
Memberships:
Selected: American Advertising Federation Foundation, Standing Committee on Diversity and Taskforce on Diversity and Multi-cultural Advertising; Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind, board of governors, Chicago Urban League, board of directors and Business Advisory Council; Howard University, School of Communications, Advisory Council.

Career

Wade Advertising, Chicago, copywriter, 1961-64; Leo Burnett Company, Chicago, copywriter, 1964-67; Foote Cone and Belding, London, copy supervisor, 1967-68; Needham Harper & Steers, New York, copy supervisor, 1968-71; Burrell Communications Group, Chicago and Atlanta, founder and chief executive officer, 1971-2004, chairman emeritus, 2004-.

Life's Work

Tom Burrell was first directed toward a career in advertising by a high school aptitude test. However, it was his own independent spirit, creativity, and courage that guided him from a working-class childhood on the south side of Chicago to a position as chairman and chief executive officer of the company that would bear his name, Burrell Communications. Though for much of his life, Burrell was unsure of his own abilities, he not only worked his way up from the mailroom to the head office, but he also pioneered an advertising philosophy that acknowledged the economic power of youth and communities of color, and showed an understanding of the unique cultural characteristics of both.

Thomas Jason Burrell was born on March 18, 1939, in Chicago, Illinois. His father Thomas was an entrepreneur who had come to the large Midwestern city from Tennessee during the 1920s. Because he had little faith in banks, he did not deposit his money in bank accounts; instead, he saved it on his own. When many banks failed in 1929 at the beginning of the Great Depression that would ravage the country throughout the 1930s, Thomas Burrell Sr. did not lose his money as so many others did. With cash on hand, he found himself able to make money by buying buildings while prices were low. Soon he owned and operated his own tavern, a "blues joint," which featured famous musicians such as Muddy Waters and B.B. King.

Young Thomas' mother Evelyn had also come to Chicago from the South. One of ten children, she had left her family in Alabama, following her other sisters and brothers who had sought opportunity in the North. Evelyn Burrell had attended beauty school, and while she cared for her children, she worked as a beautician in her home.

Created Jobs as a Child

Tom Burrell spent much of his childhood working. He found many ways to earn extra money, developing the creativity that would later bring success to his advertising agency. An aunt who worked at a soap factory brought home damaged bars of soap for free and young Tom sold them door to door. He also shined shoes, set up pins in bowling alleys, washed windows, and rode public transit mornings and evenings to deliver newspapers before and after school.

Burrell's experience at school was often difficult. Though he liked his classes when his teachers were interesting and attentive, he often found himself the victim of bullies in the schoolyard. He felt that he did not fit in and, in an effort to keep out of trouble, he stayed apart, watching and learning. This role of observer taught him a lot about human nature, and he would put that knowledge to work later in his adult life and career.

When Burrell was a teenager, one of his friends was killed while fleeing police in a stolen car. This tragic event affected him deeply, in part because it showed him his own possible future. In his junior year of high school Burrell decided to put his future on a better track. He changed high schools, switching from Englewood High to Parker High, a more academic school with fewer tough kids. The decision was his alone. He had grown used to making his own decisions about his life, because his mother had always treated him with respect for his opinions. He had learned early that if he really thought he could do something, his mother would encourage him to try it.

It was at Parker High School that Burrell took the aptitude test that would affect the course of his life. The test determined that Burrell was "artistic and persuasive," and a teacher suggested that writing copy for an advertising company might be a good career for someone with those qualities. The idea interested him, and, with characteristic determination, he set his sights on a career in advertising.

Struggled for Success in College

College was the first step, and after his graduation from high school in 1957, Burrell entered Chicago's Roosevelt University. College was not easy for him. He had little guidance when he entered the university, and his first year he took a very heavy course load and joined both the staff of the college newspaper and an advertising fraternity. By his second semester he was so stressed from work and activities that he began to have health problems. He related in an interview with Contemporary Black Biography (CBB) that when one of his advisors told him bluntly that he was "just not intelligent enough to graduate from college, " he became discouraged and left school to work at a paint factory.

However, Burrell hated factory work and decided to give the university another try. More experienced now, and having sampled the sort of job he might get without a degree, he began to do better in school, getting As and Bs. He graduated from Roosevelt University in 1962.

During his senior year, Burrell had gone to work in the mailroom of Wade Advertising, a Chicago agency. Within a year, he had been promoted to writing advertising copy on such well-known accounts as Alka Seltzer and Robin Hood Flour. He continued to move up in the field, getting jobs in other prestigious agencies, and even living in London for a year working for the agency of Foote Cone and Belding. Even as he worked at some of the best agencies in advertising, Burrell knew that he was preparing himself to start his own business. Like his father, he did not want to spend his life working for someone else. As he performed his job, he constantly observed and learned how every aspect of an advertising agency worked.

Finally, in 1971, he was ready. He left his job as copy supervisor in the Chicago office of the New York firm of Needham Harper & Steers to open his own agency with a partner, Emmett McBain. Burrell McBain, as it was called then, decided to focus on a largely ignored audience, African-American consumers. One of their earliest successes was a black urban Marlboro man for a Phillip Morris tobacco advertising campaign.

Developed Self-Confidence in Business

During the first six months of running his own agency, Burrell had many moments of nervousness and fears of failure. As he had in college, he almost became ill from the stress, but he persevered because he had decided that he needed the independence of running his own business. Even if his advertising agency did not succeed, he determined that he would never return to a corporate advertising job. He had even thought of other businesses he might try, but he did not need to use those ideas. In 1972, after his firm's initial success with Marlboro, Burrell landed the national McDonald's restaurant chain as a client, and, a year later, Coca-Cola. In 1974, McBain left the agency, and the firm name was changed to Burrell Advertising.

Perhaps Burrell's biggest business success was in learning to trust his own skills and intelligence. Having convinced himself by bad school experiences that he was not intelligent, Burrell had felt that he needed other people to help him run his agency. Once he was on his own, however, his confidence in his abilities grew, and the success of his business increased. Burrell told CBB that "it took him many years of success at work to rebuild his confidence after the college advisor's disheartening warning." To guard others against his experience, he told CBB that in the future he made it a point "to advise young African Americans to respect those in authority, but to maintain their belief in themselves."

Burrell's agency continued to prosper and gain new clients, winning awards for some of its innovative commercials. By 1979 Burrell's client billings reached more than $10 million. In 1983 the company opened an office in Atlanta, Georgia, and in 1992 the firm name was changed to Burrell Communications Group and billings approached $100 million. The agency has created successful campaigns for such products targeted specifically at African Americans, including Johnson Products' Afrosheen and Ultrasheen, to brands and services used by everyone, like Verizon, Kmart, Sears, Tide, Crest Toothpaste, and Sprite, among many others.

Though Burrell has always wanted his agency to represent all kinds of products and to appeal to all sorts of people, most advertisers continue to view Burrell Communications as a way to reach youth and urban markets and people of color. Before Burrell entered the business, there were very few people of color in commercials. Those that were seen were usually stereotyped. Burrell's commercials gave a very human face to blacks in advertising, focusing on families and relationships. When Toyota received criticism for another agency's ad that was perceived by many as racist, they turned to Burrell for a more positive campaign. Burrell also invented the advertising term "yurban," a combination of young and urban, that describes an important target market. Burrell advertisements treat their young audience with respect, using humor, music, and honesty to sell products.

In the summer of 2004, Burrell announced his retirement from Burrell Communications. The agency continues to be one of the top advertising companies, and Burrell still maintains a role as chairman emeritus. However, he considers himself, as he told CBB, "more rewired than retired," and continues to try new adventures, such as performing as a singer.

Awards

Selected: Albert Lasker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Advertising, 1986; University of Missouri School of Journalism Honors Medal for Distinguished Service, 1990; Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind, Lifetime Achievement Award, 1998; Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Living Legend Award, 2003; American Advertising Federation, Advertising Hall of Fame, 2005.

Tom Burrell

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