Bruce Barton's Integrity Hook; Message Received: His sincerity helped build BBDO into a powerhouse.(LEADERS & SUCCESS)

Byline: MARILYN MUCH

For ad agency executive Bruce Barton, the key to creating great ads was sincerity.

It was a unique approach. Barton, who co-founded ad agency Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn in 1928, had a credo: he had to believe in the products, businesses and organizations he pitched.

So he didn't write ads to sell products: rather he wrote literary vignettes filled with emotion that revealed how a particular company or business could change consumers' lives, wrote Joe Vitale in "The Seven Lost Secrets of Success."

Before he created a campaign, he'd try to find out how the company contributed to the country's growth.

To get his point across, he'd tap into people's feelings of pride. For instance, an ad he created to improve the image of U.S. Steel in 1935 played up founder Andrew Carnegie's personal achievements. It said: ". . . He came to a land of wooden towns and left a nation of steel."

Using this tack, Barton (1886-1967) changed the public's perception about U.S. Steel. People were no longer buying a product called steel -- they were supporting a mission to improve the nation's lifestyle, says Vitale.