Advertising: Europe's Creative New Breed

Phillippe Hautefeuille, head of the tiny Pans advertising agency that bears his name, had long been delighted to promote the wares of Airborne, a French furniture manufacturer. It came as a shock when he learned that the company could afford only a skimpy $50,000 for its 1969 campaign. "Mon dieu," recalls Hautefeuille, "a major impact was just not possible. But then I got to thinking. Whatever we did had to be audacious."

On the theory that a chair should be sold for its anatomical comfort, Hautefeuille devised a callipygous montage. He commissioned some 2,000 'photographs of bare buttocks, those of his employees, their children and friends. "We cropped the pictures right down to the buttocks itself," says the adman. "It was more abstract—not obscene, not vulgar, not ugly." The resulting two-page layout of 50 men's, women's and children's bottoms became the talk of Europe. After its publication in major French, German and Belgian magazines, delighted readers pinned the ad to office walls all over the Continent and Airborne enjoyed a 40% sales increase.

Such startling showmanship is part of a creative uprising that is transforming the once stodgy European ad scene and bringing a rapid end to the Old World bias against advertising. The U.S. still leads the world in ad expenditures (1969: $19.5 billion, up 7% from 1968), but ad outlays in Europe are rising faster. In the countries that make most use of advertising—West Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and The Netherlands—expenditures last year totaled $6.3 billion, up 12.5% from $5.6 billion in 1968.

Trouble in the Middle. An important share of the big accounts are still held by American giants, notably J. Walter Thompson and Young & Rubicam, which have dominated European advertising for years. But the long creative hegemony of U.S. agencies is being broken by a new breed of mostly young, Europe-trained admen who have formed their own small firms. Advertising executives expect some agencies to become victims of the change. "The old-established middle-sized agencies are in the most trouble," says Jeremy Bullmore a director of J. Walter Thompson in London. "The ones that will prosper are the international full-service agencies and the small nimble ones that can generate excitement."

Despite slender budgets, the new agencies produce eye-catching graphics and pungent copy. For example, a recent ad for Alfa Romeo by the French subsidiary of London's Colman, Prentis & Varley shows an ignition key stuck in a succulent red apple under the single word "Temptation." A breezy approach to sex and nudity is another hallmark of the New Wave. A lingerie ad in Elle, the French magazine, shows a couple in bed. "How was I?" she asks, slipping on her brassiere. "I love you," he replies, "and your Aubade bra."