Meetings Series, 1950-1974.

Scope and content:

The Meetings Series contains minutes, Account Summaries, and memoranda pertaining to Review Board meetings. Meeting minutes and related materials (such as background memoranda and reports) comprise the bulk of the records. The minutes were recorded by the Review Board Secretary (or in some cases a Review Board member), and they generally include a list of Review Board members, a statement of the meeting's purpose, up-to-date marketing information, analysis of the advertising "proposition" (a capsule statement of what consumers should hope to gain from purchasing client's product), and final conclusions and recommendations. In some cases the writer records discussions verbatim, providing further insight into the personalities and groups processes involved (see files for Pan-American Airlines, 1959-1960; Chesebrough-Ponds, 1957-1959). There are no Review Board meetings minutes for 1966-1968.

Account Summaries often were submitted prior to Review Board meetings, allowing them to function like a background memorandum for particular meetings. Otherwise, they provided Review Board members with an accessible, systematic examination of the status of each account. The Account Summary format changed in 1967, but generally it contained the following information: financial marketing figures for the past five years, a summary of market conditions for the client's product, a summary of advertising (current objectives and expenditures), and a frank assessment of problems and prospects for the account.

Some folders in the Meeting Records Series are labeled "John Monsarrat" because they contain documents from his personal files. He was a member of some Review Boards, chairperson of several others, and the JWT executive responsible for the Review Board system in its entirety from 1960 to 1965. His files contain memoranda and meeting minutes that would otherwise be missing from the Review Board Records.

Arrangement:

Arranged alphabetically by client.

Contents

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Collection restrictions:

Collection is restricted: Photocopying from the Review Board Records is prohibited.

Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection.

All or portions of this collection may be housed off-site in Duke University's Library Service Center. There may be a 48-hour delay in obtaining these materials.

Please contact Research Services staff before visiting the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library to use this collection.

Use & permissions:

The copyright interests in the J. Walter Thompson Company Review Board Records have not been transferred to Duke University. For further information, see the section on copyright in the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

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