Globalizing Ideal Beauty: How Female Copywriters of the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency Redefined Beauty for the Twentieth Century. Denise H. Sutton. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. 224 pp.
Denise H. Sutton’s Globalizing Ideal Beauty: How Female Copywriters of the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency Redefined Beauty for the Twentieth Century is founded upon the notion that one cannot separate the creator from the creation. With this in mind, advertisements are not just a reflection of client requirements, but also belief and value systems of those who create the campaigns.
As such, the advertising campaigns covered in the book are not simple tools used to sell a product, but reflections of the complicated role that the female copywriters faced at JWT, one of the largest advertising agencies in the world. They were neither the secretaries that some expected to find in the workplace, nor were they the accepted “ad men.” These women, led by Helen Lansdowne, occupied a complicated position where they were representatives of a specific kind of woman who had to work with and through expected stereotypes in defining their place in work culture and in creating an idealized notion of beauty.
Through a blending of archival re-search and analysis of key ad campaigns created by JWT, author Sutton, a Ph.D. in women’s studies, provides a look at “the forgotten story” of a group of female copywriters who were able to use their special status to create and market the Women’s Editorial Department while creating innovative and, in some cases, slightly scandalous ads. To explain hiring female copywriters and creating the Women’s Editorial Department, JWT emphasized that women were best suited to understand the point-of-view needed to sell products to women. Although they were not permitted much interaction with clients, the female copywriters left their mark on the advertising world in other ways.
Where Sutton’s work excels is in taking the emphasis away from just the depiction of women in advertisements to looking at the contribution of women in advertising. Through focusing on JWT, once known as the pioneer agency for hiring women to create advertisements, and two specific campaigns—Pond’s Cold Cream and Woodbury’s Facial Soap—the intersection between the suffrage movement, modern advertising, science, sexuality, and consumer culture becomes clear. Both of these campaigns not only contained elements still present in current advertising, but they were also spearheaded by women. In fact, the women on these campaigns were credited, at least at JWT, with devising the first use of sex appeal in ads and the creation of the testimonial advertisement. Lansdowne’s department also challenged the workplace culture at JWT, as the female copywriters felt the need to differentiate themselves from women in traditional roles, such as secretaries.
In showcasing women’s contributions at a single agency, Sutton’s book also shows how these college-educated women were able to bring elements of their life into the ads they created. Several of the women Lansdowne hired had backgrounds in the suffrage movement and sociology. Perhaps because of these interests, many of the ads those women created tapped into the same language and motivational factors that the suffrage movement employed, thus linking the suffrage movement and advertising women with consumer culture.
As with any work, there is always room for improvement. Perhaps the most noticeable weakness comes in the chapter on international expansion. While interesting and approached with the same intensity of other chapters, this section pulls away from the contributions of the female copywriters at JWT to focus on the male executives and their approach to advertising on an international level. The language and approach of these male executives are an interesting study in cultural imperialism, but feel a bit off track with the rest of the book’s focus on the women’s contributions to advertising.
In terms of style, there are places throughout the book where the writing could be tightened up and some points emphasized a bit less while retaining the same impact. For example, the fact that these women were, for the most part, college-educated from prominent universities is repeated to the point of annoyance. Additionally, several sections use the inelegant transition phrasing of “this section shows…,” which may be remnants of Sutton’s dissertation from Clark University.
Although many scholars have studied the impact of advertising on women from various perspectives, Sutton’s work fills a void by looking not just at the impact, but also at the history of those who created the ads. Her specific focus on JWT’s Women’s Editorial Department allows a glimpse at how women were able to negotiate the male-dominated work environment, the stereotypical images of women in advertising, and the impact of their own belief systems upon the advertisements. The “behind the scenes” elements brought to the analysis of the campaigns highlighted in the book provide a much richer examination of the campaigns and the people behind them.
TRICIA M. FARWELL
Middle Tennessee State University