Shirley Polykoff: Copy that coloured a nation
by Katie Shoard
Shirley - Bottle blonde and proud of it
Shirley Polykoff is a legendary advertising personality whose copy revolutionised both the fortunes of Clairol and the lives of women in 1950s America.
A ballsy girl from Brooklyn, Shirley battled her way up the ranks at Foote, Cone & Belding agency from the position of junior copywriter to vice president and creative director, to finally, inductee of the Advertising Hall of Fame. On her way up, this flamboyant and brilliant woman gained a reputation as ‘a dynamo in selling and advertising’, with her copy for Clairol hair dye famous not only for its explosive cultural and commercial impact but also for persuading David Hockney to go blonde.
A blonde who had more fun
For best results, season with arsenic
Shirley Polykoff was born in New York in 1908, the daughter of Jewish immigrants. Despite her modest upbringing, Shirley’s aspirations were never curbed by the limits society imposed on her gender, race and class. She was a born fighter. She wanted a career, independence and success, and was willing to court controversy if it got her what she wanted. And she did just that from a very early age – as a feisty fifteen year old, years before she penned her infamous ads, Shirley made the decision to transform herself from mousy brunette to glamourous blonde in a time when, according to her, the only women who dyed their hair were “chorus girls and hookers”.
Of course, that doesn’t sound like a big deal now, but in the 1930s it would have certainly raised eyebrows. Although suffrage was granted in 1920, political emancipation didn’t equate to social liberty. Long before the pill, feminism and Annie Lennox and Aretha Franklin declared ‘sisters are doin’ it for themselves’, society had very rigid ideas about the part women should play. Wives were the moral guardians of their family who existed to care for their husbands, children and the home. God forbid if their aspirations did extend beyond the picket fence… these ‘career’ women were vilified as cold, unnatural, and (gasp!) ‘bad mothers’.
She does and now you can too
Despite coming from this generation, it was clear that this wife and mother of two had no intention of swapping her pen for a pinny. When Shirley took the position as junior copywriter on the Clairol account at Foote, Cone & Belding in 1955, she already had an established reputation in retail advertising. None-the-less, being the agency’s lone female creative must have been intimidating, but then I’m sure cock-sure Shirley never let it show.
I reckon she does
Her big break came in 1956 with the launch of Miss Clairol, the first hair dye women could use at home. It was revolutionary. When Clairol ran demonstrations in New York, thousands of women turned up to watch. “They were astonished,” recalls Clairol executive, Barry Gleb, “This was to the word of hair colour what computers were to the world of adding machines.” Shirley knew instinctively what angle to take. She recognised there was a stigma attached to dying your hair but she strongly believed it was every women’s prerogative to do so. The line she came up with was the perfect mix of discretion, independence and intrigue: “Does she or doesn’t she?”
However, Shirley had to battle to get her copy through – her male colleagues thought it was ‘too suggestive’. In fact, Life magazine initially refused to run the campaign for this very reason. Outraged, Shirley demanded the editor to ask the women in the office their opinion. Of course, they saw no problem with it. Shirley, knowing this would be the result, quipped sarcastically, “Well, no nice girl ever got an off-color meaning about anything.”
A explosion of colour
Any sexual undertones were skillfully tempered by images of wholesome American women – in Shirley’s original brief to her art director she suggests “cashmere-sweater-over-the-shoulder-types”. It was an inspired move. Early press ads featured beautiful mothers with their beautiful children. Later, as society loosened up, the campaign moved on to make room for more sassy lines, ‘Is it true blondes have more fun?’ and ‘The closer he gets, the better you look’. Her goal was to make colouring your hair both acceptable and mainstream. Her strategy worked spectacularly. The market exploded.
After the launch, letters of gratitude flooded into Clairol, one in particular Shirley read out in various sales meetings. It was from a 28 year old women who had been dating her boyfriend for five years without a sniff of a proposal. Close to losing hope, she saw a Clairol ad on the subway and decided to dye her hair blonde. She was writing the letter from Bermuda on her honeymoon and thanked Clairol for “changing her life”. Shirley had obviously tapped into something. Revenues increased 800%, from $25 million to $200 million. And Clairol, at the forefront, raked in half this revenue.
Do blondes have more fun? Ask David Hockney
What’s her secret?
In an interview given in the 60s, Shirley was asked what was the secret of writing effective copy. “I’m a girl first and an advertising woman second,” she explained, “I know what they respond to because I know what I respond to… You have to think in terms of people. And her advice to up and coming copywriters was just as straightforward, “I tell them to write to themselves. If they’re not going to fall for the line, nobody else will either.”
Getting people to fall for her lines was something that Shirley mastered to perfection. At her retirement party in 1973, she reminisced with the assembled executives of Clairol and Foote, Cone and Belding about the mountain of mail they received after the launch of that first campaign, nearly twenty years earlier. “Remember the letter from the girl who got a Bermuda honeymoon by becoming a blonde?” she asked. Of course they all did, it had become part of American advertising folklore. “Well,” she said, “I wrote it.”
My favourite piece of advice from Shirley links her writing with her continuous love of being blonde, and offers something all copywriters should think about. “You generate better when you think you’re gorgeous,” she said.
Right then, I’m off to hit the bottle…
Tags: Advertising, Advertising Agency Manchester, Advertising Hall of Fame, Advertising Woman, American advertising folklore, Art Direction, Award-winning Copywriting, Clairol, Cone & Belding, Cone & Belding agency, Copywriter, Copywriting, Creativity, David Hockney, Famous ad campaigns, Foote, Miss Clairol, Shirley Polykoff, Vintage advertising, Writing for Advertising
