{"id":3926,"date":"2022-06-19T11:50:29","date_gmt":"2022-06-19T06:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onlykutts.com\/?p=3926"},"modified":"2022-06-19T11:50:30","modified_gmt":"2022-06-19T06:20:30","slug":"iconic-ads-yellow-pages-j-r-hartley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlykutts.com\/index.php\/2022\/06\/19\/iconic-ads-yellow-pages-j-r-hartley\/","title":{"rendered":"Iconic Ads: Yellow Pages – J R Hartley"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An old gentleman searched for a book at every store he could find. When his daughter suggests looking in the Yellow Pages, he eventually finds a copy from the comfort of his recliner, and his delight is amplified when the viewer realises that the man looking for the book is the author himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Good old Yellow Pages. We don\u2019t just help with the nasty things in life, like a blocked drain. We\u2019re there for the nice things too,” the voiceover says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the commercial originally aired in 1983, it marked a significant shift for the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Yellow Pages was a place you turned to if somebody broke your window or your plumbing packed up, but no one had really explored the opportunity of expanding
usage” explained John Condron, who headed up marketing at Yellow Pages at that time and eventually went on to become CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To make matters worse, consumers had come to immediately associate the Yellow Pages with crises, leading to a “very flat” level of use. Condron thought it was time to try something new and put the campaign out to tender, with a two-word brief: boost utilisation or usage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There will be more people advertising in the book if there are more people using it, and that will lead to a greater amount of data being included in it; and because more data means more value, the cycle continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although AMV was one of the agencies that presented, the outcome of the competition was not certain. Condron deemed AMV a “curiosity” at the time since it was more renowned for print and outdoor advertising than it was for television commercials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Condron’s mind, David Abbott had been referred to as the king of copywriting, and not for television commercials. When Condron and the Yellow Pages team visited AMV, they discussed the approach with the company’s executives. All along, Peter Mead, another co-founder, took the lead on these matters. Condron saw that David was reclining back in his chair with his hands behind his head, staring out the window, and he wondered, “Shouldn’t you be paying more attention?” Isn’t this something that’s very important to you? “<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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