‘There’s no doubt that what happened in New York led to what is now regarded as the golden age of British advertising,’ confirms experienced adman Alfredo Marcantonio, who has served time at some of the best-known agencies in the UK. In a scenario that could easily have been drawn from the period we’re discussing, our meeting takes place in an Italian restaurant in London’s Soho. Outside, a dreary winter drizzle is falling – but in here, there’s a warm glow of nostalgia. ‘Agencies like Doyle Dane Bernbach showed us how to use our own language,’ Marcantonio says. ‘Of course, in those days American advertising was not diffused as widely or as rapidly as it is today. Keen young creatives would rush to the newsagents as soon as magazines like the New Yorker and Esquire came out, because that was where you could see the sharpest ads.’ Marcantonio was actually working at the British arm of Volkswagen when DDB began producing its groundbreaking ads for the Beetle. The ads struck such a powerful chord that he quit his job in the VW marketing department to go and work at an agency.
