Collett Dickenson Pearce & Partners (CDP) emerged from the "Swinging London" cultural shifts of the 1960s as Britain's most glamorous and influential advertising agency, regarded during the 1960's and 1970's as one of the best advertising agencies in the world^[1]. Launched in April 1960, it was a nursery for the careers of many who were to become internationally famous; among those working there as young men were Frank Lowe(now Sir Frank Lowe), David Puttnam (now Lord Puttnam), Alan Parker (now Sir Alan Parker), John Hegarty,Indra Sinha, Neil Godfrey, and Charles Saatchi. Ridley Scott, the director of Blade Runner, Alien and Gladiator, made commercials for CDP, as did Chariots of Fire director Hugh Hudson. The creative director during the first two key decades was the late Colin Millward, a dour veteran of World War II.^[2] Swinging London is a catchall term applied to a variety of dynamic cultural trends in the United Kingdom (centred in London) in the second half of the 1960s. ... An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising (and sometimes other forms of promotion) for its clients. ... David Puttnam receiving his BAFTA Fellowship, 19 February 2006 David Terence Puttnam, Baron Puttnam of Queensgate, CBE is a film producer and politician. ... Alan Parker on the set of Pink Floyd The Wall Sir Alan Parker (born February 14, 1944) is a British film director, producer, writer, and actor. ... John Hegarty was elected 43rd Provost of Trinity College, Dublin in 2001 for a ten-year term. ... Charles Saatchi Charles Saatchi (born June 9, 1943) was the co-founder with his brother Maurice of the global advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, which became the worlds biggest before the brothers were forced out of their own company in 1995. ... Sir Ridley Scott (born November 30, 1937 in South Shields, County Durham) is an influential Academy Award-nominated English film director, and producer. ... Blade Runner is a 1982 cyberpunk, neo-noir film directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. ... Alien; for other films/spin-offs see Alien (film series) Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Alien (film) Alien, a 1979 science fiction/horror film directed by Ridley Scott, became a cultural phenomenon. ... Gladiator is a 2000 historical action/drama film directed by Ridley Scott, starring Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix. ... Chariots of Fire is a British film released in 1981. ... Hugh Hudson (born 25 August 1936) is a British Academy award-nominated film director. ...

Puttnam's role was as an account executive. "My equivalent of university was the five years [1962-1967] I spent working at an advertising agency called Collett Dickenson Pearce ... with good reason I believed I was working for the best agency in the world. Most of the work we were doing was both different and good; and we were winning awards and gaining recognition left, right and centre."^[3]

The agency's output had a distinctive sharp wit and confident font-led graphic style, well suited to the voguish "colour supplements" which the Sunday newspapers were launching at this time. By the 70s, colour television with improved picture definition was rapidly taking root, bringing the need and the opportunity for greater sophistication in the commercials it showed. CDP plunged in under its new managing director Frank Lowe (later Sir Frank), and set the tone for what is now viewed as a golden creative period in British advertising. Among the advertisements created by CDP were the ones for Heineken with the claim that it “refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach”, and others for Harvey’s Bristol Cream, Bird’s Eye, Parker pens, Fiat, Ford, Acrilan, Pretty Polly and Ronson. Campaign slogans which entered the national consciousness include "Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet" and "Heineken refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach" (1974). These, and commercials for Hovis (by Ridley Scott, 1973) and Cinzano (Alan Parker, 1978), all appear in the upper reaches of 100 Greatest TV Ads Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet is one of the most famous British advertising campaigns for a tobacco product. ... Sir Ridley Scott (born November 30, 1937 in South Shields, County Durham) is an influential Academy Award-nominated English film director, and producer. ... Alan Parker on the set of Pink Floyd The Wall Sir Alan Parker (born February 14, 1944) is a British film director, producer, writer, and actor. ...

The agency's most notorious campaign was for Benson & Hedges cigarettes – carried principally on posters and in print, because cigarette advertising had been banned from British television since 1965. To circumvent restrictions on associating smoking with youth, glamour or life style, CDP devised a memorable series of images placing the product's gold pack in highly contrived, surreal surroundings. No people were shown, and not a word of copy, apart from the obligatory Government health warnings. Benson & Hedges is a British brand of cigarettes owned by Gallaher Group. ...

After years of dwindling fortune in the late 1980s and through the 1990s, Collett Dickenson Pearce finally ceased business in 2000. The company was acquired by the Dentsu group, the fifth largest global marketing communications groups, and now operates as CDP-Travissully London. Dentsu Building in Shiodome, Tokyo Dentsu Inc. ...

References

1. ^ Obituary in London Times, 1 June 2004
2. ^ Obituary in London Times, 1 June 2004
3. ^ Account of his time at CDP in Speech by Lord Puttnam of Queensgate CBE to London Metropolitan University Honorary Degree Holders Dinner, 10 March 2004, pp 3-7

See also

• The Men From the Agency BBC Four documentary examining the influence of CDP.
• Authors, John Salmon and John Ritchie. (2001). Inside Collett Dickenson Pearce, London: Batsford. ISBN 0713484039