# Tom Burrell

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{{Short description|Founder of one of the first African American ad agencies}}
{{use mdy dates|date=June 2021}}
{{use American English|date=June 2021}}
'''Thomas J. "Tom" Burrell'''<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[Advertising Age](/source/Advertising_Age)
   |title=Thomas J. Burrell. (1939-).
   |date=March 29, 1999}}</ref> (born March 18, 1939)<ref name=TomBurrell.Cyclo>{{cite web |website=[Encyclopedia.com](/source/Encyclopedia.com)
   |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/social-sciences-and-law/business-leaders/tom-burrell
|title=Burrell, Thomas J. 1939– |date=May 17, 2018}}</ref>
founder and chairman emeritus of [Burrell Communications](/source/Burrell_Communications), became one of the first African Americans in the field of advertising.<ref name=TomBurrell.CrainChicago>{{cite news |newspaper=[Crain's Chicago Business](/source/Crain's_Chicago_Business)
        |url=https://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20180406/CRED0701/180409919/tom-burrell-pioneering-ad-executive-selling-south-loop-condo
        |title=Tom Burrell, pioneering ad executive, selling South Loop condo
        |date=April 6, 2018}}</ref>

==Early years==
Burrell was born in Chicago, where his father owned a tavern and his mother worked for a beauty parlor.<ref name=TomBurrell.AA128mmFawcett/> He switched high schools to avoid being near "the wrong crowd" and it was in the second one that a teacher encouraged him to look into the field of advertising.<ref name=TomBurrell.Cyclo/><ref name=TomBurrell.AA128mmFawcett>{{cite news |newspaper=[Advertising Age](/source/Advertising_Age)
   |title=Perseverance pays dividend at $128 million Burrell shop
   |author=Adrienne W. Fawcett |date=June 3, 1996 |pages=C2, C4, C6}}</ref> He then went to [Roosevelt University](/source/Roosevelt_University), majoring in English and with a minor in advertising.

==Career==
Burrell was "the first black person to work in a Chicago advertising agency."<ref name=TomBurrell.WTTW>{{cite web |website=[WTTW](/source/WTTW)
|url=https://interactive.wttw.com/playlist/2018/06/28/tom-burrell
|title=How Tom Burrell Convinced Corporations That 'Black People Are Not Dark-Skinned White People'
|author=Daniel Hautzinger  |date=June 28, 2018}}</ref> After ten years of advancing, he and Emmett McBain opened their own agency, Burrell McBain Advertising.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[Advertising Age](/source/Advertising_Age)
   |title=Burrell at 25 |date=June 3, 1996 |page=C1}}</ref> Part of Burrell's pitch was that "black people are not dark-skinned white people," referring to differences in music preferences and other cultural differences. Burrell bought out his partner in 1974 and renamed the agency ''Burrell Communications Group''.<ref name=TomBurrell.Cyclo/> [McDonald's](/source/McDonald's) and [Coca-Cola](/source/Coca-Cola) were early clients.<ref name=TomBurrell.WTTW/>

In 1999 he sold 49% of his firm to fund expansion,<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[Advertising Age](/source/Advertising_Age)
|url=https://adage.com/article/news/publicis-takes-stake-burrell/25333
|title=Publicis takes stake in Burrell
|quote=Chairman-CEO Thomas Burrell will own 43% of the agency, and executives will own the remaining 8%.
|date=June 2, 1999}}</ref> and subsequently stepped aside, becoming ''chairman emeritus'' of the agency; Burrell was later inducted into the [American Advertising Federation Hall of Fame](/source/American_Advertising_Federation_Hall_of_Fame).<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://advertisinghall.org/members/member_bio.php?memid=832
|title=Members, Advertising Hall of Fame}}</ref> He also authored two books, ''Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority''<ref>{{cite book |isbn=978-1-4019-2592-5 |year=2010
|title=Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority
|author=Tom Burrell|publisher=National Geographic Books
}}</ref> and ''Brainwashed: Erasing the Myth of Black Inferiority''.<ref>{{cite book |isbn=978-1-4019-2591-8 
|title=Brainwashed: Erasing the Myth of Black Inferiority
|author=Tom Burrell|date=September 2009
|publisher=Hay House, Incorporated
}}</ref><ref name=TomBurrell.CrainChicago/>

One post-retirement recognition of his professional accomplishments came in 2017 from ''The One Club''.<ref>{{cite news
  |newspaper=[BizJournals](/source/BizJournals) (Chicago)
  |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/chicago/news/2017/09/20/chicago-ad-man-tom-burrell-makes-history.html
  |title=Chicago ad man Tom Burrell makes history with a top honor
  |author=Lewis Lazare |date=September 20, 2017}}</ref>

==Personal==
He and his wife Madeleine Moore Burrell live in Miami. Burrell has donated to and benefitted from [Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind](/source/Chicago_Lighthouse) since being diagnosed with [macular degeneration](/source/macular_degeneration).<ref name=TomBurrell.Cyclo/>

==References==
{{reflist|31em}}

==External links==
* [https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/thomas-j-burrell-40 Video, oral history, Thomas J. Burrell]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burrell, Tom}}
Category:1939 births
Category:Living people
Category:American company founders
Category:African-American company founders
Category:African-American business executives
Category:21st-century African-American people
Category:20th-century African-American people

{{US-business-bio-1930s-stub}}

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Tom Burrell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Burrell) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Burrell?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.