Edgy mission statements from Gen-X-targeting 90's ad agencies?

January 28, 2013 9:09 AM

I'm looking for mission statements from 90's advertising agencies. Specifically, super "edgy" ad agencies that targeted the Gen-X demographic. The more over the top and "extreme" the better. Worst-case scenario, I'd love to know where to start looking for them myself.
posted by defenestration to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

hmm...advertising trade journals like advertising age and communication arts? a lot of those agencies would print their mission statements in ads for themselves (there will at least be good pull-quotes), but you might have to look in the dead tree editions at a college library...
posted by sexyrobot at 9:35 AM on January 28, 2013

You'll want to look at Fallon McElligott's ad campaigns, especially for Miller Lite. Not sure what you mean exactly by "mission statements" -- do you mean, how they pitched the advertising ideas to their customers? Or do you mean just general info about their campaigns (such as can be found with a search in AdWeek, etc.)?
posted by Houstonian at 9:37 AM on January 28, 2013

If you can identify some respective Ad Agencies, you can use the Internet Wayback Machine to see what their Websites looked like back in the late 90's.

Here's one that may be of interest: TWBA Chiat Day December 1996.

They were an "Idea Factory" in 1996. Today, they make things smart and beautiful while having fun.
posted by bricksNmortar at 9:48 AM on January 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

I bet this book full of rave posters from the 1990s would be very helpful and relevant.
posted by oceanjesse at 10:40 AM on January 28, 2013

You have a click around that link bricksNmortar posted but there are some gems there that probably answer your question, eg,

This has interesting implications for the growth of the Internet society. Most technologically centered innovations experience growth primarily in the under 40s and then a much slower and lesser adoption by those over that age. But the Internet is, potentially, such a powerful answer to the Tithonus' Syndrome that we should look to see rapid growth across all age ranges -- making the Virtual Society as genuinely representative of the population as a whole as "The Real World." Except that none of us will be made to feel we've turned into crickets.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:03 AM on January 28, 2013

You know who would be able to name 500 of these is the guy who calls himself Copyranter, who now works for Buzzfeed. His blog has been online for ages; it's not indexed at all, but surely has a wealth of examples hidden somewhere.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 1:11 PM on January 28, 2013

I think Teen Spirit deodorant was aimed at Gen-X, but I don't know if you call them edgy. They might have been trying to be edgy...
posted by gjc at 2:05 PM on January 28, 2013

If you're looking for something more current, there's the brilliant Agency Wank Tumblr. I think that things maybe have not changed that much from the 90s for some agencies.
posted by Addlepated at 6:44 PM on January 28, 2013

Mother ,and Wieden and Kennedy, both have reputations for being more 'edgy'/'cool' than other shops. It might be worth seeing what they did in the 90s. (W+K have Nike and I think they also have Playstation.)

I'm trying to remember who did the 'St George's' ad for Blackcurrant Tango now - something like HHCL? Here we are. I'm Gen Y, admittedly, but that is a VERY well-known ad with people my age, as are most of the Tango campaigns which were deliberately surreal and edgy. They also did Pot Noodle ads in a similar vein.
posted by mippy at 4:46 AM on January 29, 2013