J. Walter Thompson Company. Shirley F. Woodell papers, 1943-1958

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Summary

Creator:
J. Walter Thompson Company
Woodell, Shirley F., 1907-1996
Abstract:
Shirley F. Woodell (1907-1996) was an advertising executive who worked in the International Department of the J. Walter Thompson Company from 1946 to 1960. Collection includes correspondence, reports, notes, photographs, and other material that document the operations of the J. Walter Thompson Company in Mexico, the Caribbean area, and Latin America. Acquired as part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.
Extent:
1.9 Linear Feet
Language:
Materials in English.
Research Center:
John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History
Collection ID:
RL.00760

Background

Scope and content:

The papers of Shirley F. Woodell span the years 1943 to 1958. They consist of correspondence, memoranda, reports, maps, notes, itineraries, and a photograph album. The collection documents the operations of the J. Walter Thompson Company in Mexico, the Caribbean area, and Latin America, primarily through correspondence and reports written by Woodell during and immediately after his business trips. The bulk of the collection consists of Woodell's accounts of his field trips written, often daily, to J. Walter Thompson Company executives and staff. There is also correspondence to representatives of some of the company's clients. The collection documents the process of marketing a wide variety of American products, from cosmetics to automotive parts, in an international market. Local uses of products and the ways in which competitive products affected the markets for clients' products were also described because local economic and cultural factors affected decisions about advertising and distribution.

Biographical / historical:

Shirley F. Woodell (1907-1996) was an advertising executive who worked in the International Department of the J. Walter Thompson Company from 1946 to 1960. He also founded the International Advertising Association.

Born Shirley Fay Woodell Sept. 25, 1907, Louisville, Ky.; died May 24, 1996, Albuquerque, N.M.

Education: 1927 A.B., Columbia University.

Military: 1944-1945 United States Navy.

Career: 1926-1928 Export advertising clerk, Holeproof Hosiery Company, N.Y.; 1928-1941 Advertising manager, Packard Motors Export Corporation, N.Y.; 1941-1943 Sales manager, International Division, National Broadcasting Corporation, N.Y.; 1943-1944 Account executive, Foreign Department, McCann-Erickson Corporation, New York; 1946-1960 J. Walter Thompson Company, International Department; 1960 Retired from the J. Walter Thompson Company.

Awards and offices held: 1938 Founder and first President of the International Advertising Association; 1960 lecturer at the business school of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; International Advertising Association "Man of the Year" award.

Acquisition information:
The Shirley F. Woodell Papers were transferred to the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library from the J. Walter Thompson Company in 1987.
Processing information:

Processed by: Donna Longo DiMichele

Completed October 11, 1993

Processing of this collection was supported in part by the J. Walter Thompson Company Fund and the John and Kelly Hartman Foundation.

Encoded by Stephen Miller

Arrangement:

Organized into the following series: Office Files and Correspondence; Photograph Album.

The correspondence and reports convey information relevant to advertising, however the collection also includes more general observations of an American traveler in foreign countries. Social customs, traditional cultures, political situations, and Indian peoples of many countries are noted throughout the manuscripts. Clients of the J. Walter Thompson Company represented in the collection include Chesebrough-Pond's, Ford Motor Company, Eastman Kodak Company, J.B. Williams Company, Kraft Foods Company, Pan American World Airways, Parker Pen Company, Reader's Digest Association, and Standard Brands Incorporated. A business trip Woodell made during his earlier employment with McCann-Erickson Worldwide is also documented. A record of one business trip to England, France and Belgium is included.

In correspondence, memoranda, and reports, Woodell describes meetings with product distributors, retailers, dealers, and other advertising executives, including information about their business operations as well as their personal characteristics. Print and radio advertisements, billboards, and signs are discussed with regard to both their market success and attendant production problems. Costs, production facilities, and translations from English to Spanish, Portuguese, or French were often problematic. Traveling on behalf of his company and its clients, Woodell was responsible for a myraid of details and conducting business at a distance from the company's New York office was often difficult. He was occasionally exasperated by delays or apparent lack of attention to his requests for information or assistance. Woodell also describes his accommodations, parties and other social functions that he attended.

The Photograph Album, titled "Friends," contains candid portraits of personnel from the J. Walter Thompson Company's New York Office and its various International Division offices, and representatives of the company's client businesses.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

Using These Materials

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Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the Rubenstein Library's Citations, Permissions, and Copyright guide.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], J. Walter Thompson Company. Shirley F. Woodell Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

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