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When Advertising Became Art — and Art Became Everything, Part II
The 1960s gave advertising artistry. The 1970s gave it strategy. This episode completes the story.
In Part II, we examine a media landscape flooded with advertising messages, brands that all had personalities, and consumers growing harder to reach by the year. The answer was a concept that now sits at the center of every brand strategy conversation in the industry: positioning.
THE 1970s PIVOT: WHEN EVERYTHING GOT LOUDER
By 1979, total U.S. ad billings had nearly tripled over the start of the decade, reaching $27.9 billion. J. Walter Thompson became the first agency in history to break $1 billion in worldwide volume. The sheer volume of advertising was becoming its own obstacle.
Into that noise, the slogan was reborn — not as a tagline, but as strategy. Theorists Jack Trout and Al Ries gave the decade its central concept: positioning. Not what the product is. Not even what the brand feels like. But where the brand lives in the consumer’s mind relative to every competitor.
7-UP doubled its sales with “The Uncola” by repositioning itself as the alternative to Coke — leveraging the category leader’s dominance against it. Coke answered with “It’s the Real Thing,” claiming authenticity, universality, belonging. BMW declared itself “The Ultimate Driving Machine” in 1975 — tried to replace it with “Joy” in 2010, retreated to the original in 2012. McDonald’s told consumers “You Deserve a Break Today” (Advertising Age’s fifth-best campaign of the century). Burger King answered with “Have It Your Way.” The fast food wars were positioning wars.
BRAND EQUITY: THE ASSET YOU CAN’T TOUCH
The 1970s introduced another concept that runs through every brand strategy conversation: brand equity. Branding expert David Aaker’s key insight: the power of a brand lives in the minds of consumers. It is not a product feature. It is a perception — and perceptions, built through consistent advertising over time, become financial assets.
Aaker also noted what most students overlook: effective slogans communicate internally as much as externally. “You Deserve a Break Today” tells customers what to expect, employees what their job is, and suppliers what standard they must meet. A well-crafted slogan provides a center of gravity for the entire organization — not just a line on a billboard.
THREE PRINCIPLES THAT NEVER STOPPED WORKING
The episode closes with a framework drawn from the full arc of postwar advertising history — three principles as applicable to brand strategy on Instagram today as they were to television in 1965. Advertising manufactures desire, not just awareness. The era of pure product claims ended sixty years ago and isn’t coming back. And positioning is a mental act, not a product act — the battle for market share is the battle for mind share.
The Stan Lee case study ties it together: Lee didn’t just co-create comic book characters. He manufactured desire for a new kind of hero, built a brand image — Marvel’s irreverent, self-aware personality — distinct from DC’s establishment tone, and positioned Marvel in readers’ minds not just as a publisher but as a community, a sensibility, a way of seeing the world.
ABOUT THE HOST
Dr. Bob Batchelor is a cultural historian, professor at Coastal Carolina University, and editor of the three-volume anthology We Are What We Sell: How Advertising Shapes American Life. His books include Stan Lee: A Life, Roadhouse Blues, and The Bourbon King. Subscribe to Brand Strategy and Advertising on Spotify or Apple Podcasts for new episodes connecting advertising history to the strategies shaping brands today.
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By Bob BatchelorThe 1960s gave advertising artistry. The 1970s gave it strategy. This episode completes the story.
In Part II, we examine a media landscape flooded with advertising messages, brands that all had personalities, and consumers growing harder to reach by the year. The answer was a concept that now sits at the center of every brand strategy conversation in the industry: positioning.
THE 1970s PIVOT: WHEN EVERYTHING GOT LOUDER
By 1979, total U.S. ad billings had nearly tripled over the start of the decade, reaching $27.9 billion. J. Walter Thompson became the first agency in history to break $1 billion in worldwide volume. The sheer volume of advertising was becoming its own obstacle.
Into that noise, the slogan was reborn — not as a tagline, but as strategy. Theorists Jack Trout and Al Ries gave the decade its central concept: positioning. Not what the product is. Not even what the brand feels like. But where the brand lives in the consumer’s mind relative to every competitor.
7-UP doubled its sales with “The Uncola” by repositioning itself as the alternative to Coke — leveraging the category leader’s dominance against it. Coke answered with “It’s the Real Thing,” claiming authenticity, universality, belonging. BMW declared itself “The Ultimate Driving Machine” in 1975 — tried to replace it with “Joy” in 2010, retreated to the original in 2012. McDonald’s told consumers “You Deserve a Break Today” (Advertising Age’s fifth-best campaign of the century). Burger King answered with “Have It Your Way.” The fast food wars were positioning wars.
BRAND EQUITY: THE ASSET YOU CAN’T TOUCH
The 1970s introduced another concept that runs through every brand strategy conversation: brand equity. Branding expert David Aaker’s key insight: the power of a brand lives in the minds of consumers. It is not a product feature. It is a perception — and perceptions, built through consistent advertising over time, become financial assets.
Aaker also noted what most students overlook: effective slogans communicate internally as much as externally. “You Deserve a Break Today” tells customers what to expect, employees what their job is, and suppliers what standard they must meet. A well-crafted slogan provides a center of gravity for the entire organization — not just a line on a billboard.
THREE PRINCIPLES THAT NEVER STOPPED WORKING
The episode closes with a framework drawn from the full arc of postwar advertising history — three principles as applicable to brand strategy on Instagram today as they were to television in 1965. Advertising manufactures desire, not just awareness. The era of pure product claims ended sixty years ago and isn’t coming back. And positioning is a mental act, not a product act — the battle for market share is the battle for mind share.
The Stan Lee case study ties it together: Lee didn’t just co-create comic book characters. He manufactured desire for a new kind of hero, built a brand image — Marvel’s irreverent, self-aware personality — distinct from DC’s establishment tone, and positioned Marvel in readers’ minds not just as a publisher but as a community, a sensibility, a way of seeing the world.
ABOUT THE HOST
Dr. Bob Batchelor is a cultural historian, professor at Coastal Carolina University, and editor of the three-volume anthology We Are What We Sell: How Advertising Shapes American Life. His books include Stan Lee: A Life, Roadhouse Blues, and The Bourbon King. Subscribe to Brand Strategy and Advertising on Spotify or Apple Podcasts for new episodes connecting advertising history to the strategies shaping brands today.