Emmett McBain — Yuna

Emmett McBain holding a large album cover.

“Caravan: Eddie Layton at the Hammond Organ,” c. 1960: Record cover designed for Mercury Records, McBain Associates.

Emmett McBain is remembered for his transformative design leadership and long-lasting social impact as he co-founded the first African American-owned advertising agency in 1971. In 1935, Mcbain was born in Chicago and would be immersed in his art education throughout his childhood. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago summer classes as a 12 year old. Later he would attend the American Academy of Art studying commerical art while taking night classes at the IIT Institute of Design.

At just the age of 22 after graduating, McBain was immediately hired as assistant art director at Playboy Records and would later end up designing 75 album covers for artists such as Sarah Vaughan and Tony Martin at the EmArcy jazz label. In 1964, the dealer promotion campaign for the Ford Mustang product launch would be part of his role as the art supervisor at J. Walter Thompson in Detroit. This campaign was showcased at the World's Fair with the advertisements from the launch becoming iconic. However, McBain was aware of how these advertisements from the launch were showcasing a young couple and crowd that was made up of only white people. He was conscious of how these advertisements were lacking representation during the 1960s.

Marlboro Advertisement, c. 1972: Ad for Philip Morris International’s Marlboro cigarettes, Burrell McBain, Inc. Philip Morris turned to Burrell McBain to help grow its market share among African Americans, creating a Black Marlboro man that was the antithesis of the brand’s iconic white cowboy (AIGA)

Kent Advertisement, 1969: Ad for Lorillard’s Kent cigarettes.

“Black is Beautiful,” c. 1968: Ad for Vince Cullers Advertising, Inc., creative direction by McBain.

True Advertisement, 1968: Ad for Lorillard Tobacco Company’s True menthol cigarettes, Vince Cullers Advertising, whose work for the Lorillard Tobacco Company laid the groundwork for how cigarette companies and other businesses spoke to Black consumers (AIGA) All images courtesy of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Richard J. Daley Library, Special Collections & University Archives.

The fight for civil rights began to shed light on the Black Power movement which resulted in advertisers looking for Black Americans to help clients reach a the Black demographic of consumers that spent nearly $30 billion annually at the time. From 1968 through 1982, he taught at Columbia College Chicago to train a new generation of advertisers. 

Before co-founding his own advertising agency with copywriter Tom Burrell, he worked at Vince Cullers Advertising on a million-dollar campaign for the Lorillard Tobacco Company. McBain brought young Black men into the product photos and over time Lorillard would spend more money targeting Black Americans specifically. At his own advertising agency Burrell-McBain Advertising, he had his first breakthrough for designing two cigarette campaigns for Marlboro which would later help him land opportunities with McDonald's and Coca-Cola. 

Rather than focusing on the white societal norms and desires, McBain channeled the culture and voices of the Black community. There were text-only promotion that contained "blackball, black book, black boy, black eye, black friday" with "white lies. Black is Beautiful." Through efforts to promote Burrell-McBain Advertising, he asked, "What Color is Black?" Barbara D. Mahone's poem is put down as a response: "Black is the color of the feeling we share, the love we must express. The color of our strength is Black.”

What's striking is how the rise of African American advertising agencies was in conjunction with the Black Arts Movement. It amazes me how much today's designers can still learn from McBain's conscious effort to bring culture and social activism into more commercial corporate campaigns. Through his teaching efforts, nationally-recognized work, and supporting African American art, McBain innovated and led the transformation of the advertising industry. His leadership in design was revolutionary and has influenced ways social impact can be channeled through graphic design.

References:

1. Biography by Avinash Rajagopal September 1. (n.d.). 2017 AIGA Medalist Emmett McBain. Retrieved from https://www.aiga.org/2017-aiga-medalist-emmett-mcbain
2. Burrell McBain Advertising. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://goodblacknews.org/tag/burrell-mcbain-advertising/