[2010] 1960s WORK
0146 Condor Advertising
Perhaps the most fun part of my job at Gallahers was the advertising. Certainly, at Gallahers, I had much better control over this, and for once had a happy relationship with the agencies we worked with. My main agency, Hobson Bates not far away from Euston station, was very much my type of agency. They understood the marketing objectives, and worked with us to obtain the desired result. They did not adopt wild creative ideas which they wanted to push at the expense of the brand.
Accordingly we used to visit them once a week. We used to drive across to their offices. Roland always came in his own car, and there was usually a race to see who could get there first. When we got there, despite the fact that we were all on the same wavelength, they used sometimes to force the decisions almost to a vote - even though we were the client! Accordingly some times we found ourselves taking the whole department so we could ‘outvote’ the agency! Even so it was great fun.
As was normal in those days we used to arrive about eleven o'clock and start the meeting, before we went to a lunch to a restaurant nearby. These lunches were excellent, since it was then the agency's traditional way of keeping client personnel happy. We used mainly to go to a restaurant called the Au Savarin, in Charlotte Street. This was a restaurant with a French Greek menu, and was one of the best in London. As we were regular visitors everyone got to know us. But, in any case, Roland’s choice was enough to set us apart. Eventually, after some months, this was too much for the head waiter, who came across to Roland and said “I know what you want. It’s steak with chips and fried onion rings. Why do you do this? The chef hates you. Kindly ask for some decent French or Greek food. I daren't go back to tell the chef what you want.” As he was pronouncing this, in a steadily rising voice, the whole of the restaurant turned to look at us. Give Roland his due, he immediately said “What I want is steak, chips and fried onion rings”! We never heard another complaint from them.
We did occasionally have a buffet lunch in the agency itself. I particularly remember we had one where the lunch was to be served in the other half of the conference room to that where the Nielsen people were making their presentation. The charts for the presentation divided the room, whilst the secretaries got on with preparing lunch behind these. It was at a time when very short skirts had just come in. Accordingly, what we could see - underneath the flipcharts - was just the bottom of the girls as they bent over to lay out the lunch. It was a delightful cabaret of various knickers and pert bottoms. I don't think the speaker ever quite realised why our attention was riveted elsewhere!
Despite our distractions, we came out with some very good advertising; to match our objectives. The requirement was to highlight the fact that the pipe smoker took his tobacco -- Condor -- so seriously because he was a perfectionist in all things. We had originally designed storyboards which showed the Condor smoker sitting on an easy chair apparently listening to a hi-fi; but, as the camera drew back, it showed that in fact in his living room he had a whole symphony orchestra. Another version was to show a normal semidetached house with the pipe smoker again sitting -- this time on a deckchair - in the back garden, but which opened up to show the back garden was actually the gardens at Versailles. The one I liked best was due to air before fireworks night. In this, where others were setting off normal fireworks, the Condor smoker sent up an Atlas space rocket. In the event we never did do these commercials, since they would have been too expensive, but in any case they were unnecessary. The simple picture of the smoker immersed in his Condor was quite sufficient. The byline, which became one of the most famous in advertising, and was still in use several decades afterwards, was 'Its that Condor moment!'
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