Word: revlon
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...weeping or hiding under my desk. I am cheerful and alert. I face life with optimism. This agency will go on." Such was the almost joyful reaction of Executive Vice President Charles Brower of Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn last week as he announced the loss of Revlon, Inc.'s $8,000,000 account...
...Madison Avenue knew exactly how Brower felt. It was like coming out of the trenches to blighty and peace on earth. Even as they panted after Revlon, the most dynamic cosmetic-maker in the U.S., veteran admen gulped their Gibsons nervously at the thought of also taking on Revlon's rambunctious President Charles Revson, 50, the most feared, cheered and jeered advertising client since the late George Washington Hill of American Tobacco fearlessly sent Lucky Strike green...
Kicked, pulled and pushed by restless Charlie Revson, Revlon's sales have leaped from $16 million to $86 million in only eight years. Revlon claims that its paints (Persian Melon, Fire and Ice, Say It With Rubies) and powders (Love Pat, Touch and Glow) adorn the faces of more U.S. women than those of any other maker. Its TV programs ($64,000 Question and $64,000 Challenge) have become contemporary Americana. But all the while Charlie Revson, who will spend $16 million on advertising this year, feuded bitterly with the admen and used nine separate agencies in 13 years...
...Crumbs. The war began in 1944, when Revlon's then small $600,000 account was first snagged by McCann-Erickson's John McCarthy-who lasted a stormy six months with Revson. The two men finally fell out over McCarthy's dirty fingernails. When Revson needled him, McCarthy snapped: "What do you want me to do, use nail polish?" Revson laughed-and ordered McCarthy thrown off the account. Now executive editor of the Catholic Digest, McCarthy, who still has dirty fingernails, says freely and even admiringly: "Charlie is a genius. He is also a bombastic, terribly hardworking, frantic...
After Revson had chewed up a reported 18 account executives, McCann-Erickson got tired of the slaughter and parted company with him in 1948. Revlon shifted to the William Weintraub agency, where, said one adman, "Bill Weintraub knew how to handle Revson; he just outshouted him, and everything was fine." Then Weintraub's Norman B. Norman, who holds the record (seven years) for working personally with Revson, bought out Weintraub to form his own Norman, Craig & Kummel agency. But no sooner did Norman buy the rights to the $64,000 Question for Revlon than trouble began. Says Norman: "After...