What is the “Competitive Advertisements Collection?
Like many advertising agencies, the J. Walter Thompson Company had employees who clipped advertisements from magazines and newspapers and filed them according to the type of product or service advertised. Then the files could be used for reference by agency staff; evidently the primary purpose was to have ready access to the current and earlier work of competing advertisers, hence the title of the collection. The clipping at JWT seems to have begun in the early 1910s and continues to this day. Although many agencies have created similar “tearsheet” files, the very large JWT “Competitive Advertisements Collection” is one of the few that has been preserved over so many decades. The JWT “Competitive Advertisements Collection” fills many hundreds of cartons. In the earlier years (the “Pre-1955 Files” from which much of MMA is drawn), the clipped ads were arranged by categories with subject headings such as “Coughs and Colds,” “Laxatives,” “Insecticides,” etc. From 1957 on, the clippings ar
Like many advertising agencies, the J. Walter Thompson Company had employees who clipped advertisements from magazines and newspapers and file them according to the type of product or service advertised. Then the files could be used for reference by agency staff; evidently the primary purpose was to have ready access to the current and earlier work of competing advertisers, hence the title of the collection. The clipping at JWT seems to have begun in the early 1910s and continues to this day. Although many agencies have created similar “tearsheet” files, the very large JWT “Competitive Advertisements Collection” is one of the few that has been preserved over so many decades. The JWT “Competitive Advertisements Collection” fills many hundreds of cartons. In the earlier years (the “Pre-1955 Files” from which Ad*Access is drawn), the clipped ads were arranged by categories with subject headings such as “Yarn,” “Beverages,” “Radio,” etc. From 1957 on, the clippings are arranged by alphanum
