The collection documents the work of the Sosa, Bromley and Aguilar and Associates advertising agency of San Antonio, Texas.
Scope and Contents:
The collection documents the work of the Sosa, Bromley and Aguilar and Associates advertising agency of San Antonio, Texas. They created advertising for large corporations such as Western Union, American Airlines, Coca-Cola, Mars, Procter and Gamble, Anheuser-Busch, and Burger King. Additionally, they worked on political campaigns for Republican candidates including George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. Works created for local institutions such as the San Antonio Symphony and Incarnate Word High School are also represented in the collection. Sosa, Bromley and Aguilar were pioneers in developing advertising strategies to appeal to Latino consumers.
This collection includes internal corporate documentation such as awards, financial reports, marketing strategies, advertisement samples and newsletters, as well as newspaper and magazine articles. The majority of the collection consists of audiovisual materials in D2, BetacamSP, 3/4" U-Matic and 1" videotape formats. The audiovisual materials contain commercials, casting calls/auditions, director reels, public service announcements, focus groups sessions and more. Six hours of oral histories with the principals and transcriptions of the interviews are also included in the collection. Prominent sections of the collection include advertisements created for the Center for Disease Control to address misconceptions about AIDS in Latino communities, as well as photographs, an audiocassette, and public service announcements pertaining to the life and death of singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez.
Arrangement:
This collection is divided into five series:
Series 1: Background Materials, 1980-2015
Series 2: Financial Materials, 1983-1989
Series 3: Clippings, 1988-1999
Series 4: Advertisements, 1988-1995
Series 5: Audiovisual Materials, 1988-1997
Biographical / Historical:
Lionel Sosa (b. 1939) is from San Antonio, Texas and is of Mexican descent. His first venture as an entrepreneur was starting a graphic design studio called Sosart which later developed into an advertising agency. Ernest Bromley (b.1951), of Puerto Rican and Canadian descent, joined the company in 1981 while employed at the University of Texas, San Antonio as a researcher. Bromley's background in acculturation, advertising and consumer research provided a unique perspective for the newly developed Sosa and Associates. Adolfo "Al" Aguilar (b. 1955), also of Mexican descent, studied advertising and marketing at the University of Texas, Austin. Aguilar worked for Coca-Cola's first Hispanic Marketing Department when he began meeting with Sosa and Bromley. Eventually, Aguilar helped bring the Coca-Cola account to Sosa Bromley and Associates. This successful transfer ultimately led to the development of Sosa, Bromley and Aguilar and Associates.
Spanish Language Television Collection (NMAH.AC.1404)
Goya Foods, Inc. Collection, 1960-2000 (NMAH.AC.0694)
Separated Materials:
Items relating to this collection were donated to the Division of Numismatics and Division of Work and Industry. See accessions: 2002.0007.0517 (Tetradrachm coin); 2015.0080.01 (1988 Clio Award Trophy Hispanic Advertising AIDS Campaign); 2015.0080.02 (Promotional Mug); 2015.0080.05 (Promotional Watch); 2016.3049.02 (1993 Clio Award for Hispanic Market Coca Cola Classic); 2015.0080.06 (1990 Adweek Plaque); 2015.0080.03 (1995 Selena Commemorative Pin).
Provenance:
Donated to the Archives Center in 2015, by Lionel Sosa, Ernest Bromley and Adolfo Aguilar.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Oral history interview, transcripts, and background material documenting Tom Black's career as director of advertising for Smithsonian Magazine from its founding in 1969 until his retirement in 1994.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of 4.25 hours of interview material. Oral historian Tom Wiener spoke with Black in his New York office December 15‑16, 1993. Black also generously loaned materials from his files, including charts and statistics which illustrate some of his observations about the growth of the magazine and the shifting demographics of American society that have affected magazine readership and advertising, plus internal memos from the magazines's early days. Also included are an unedited transcript of the interview, plus an edited version. The latter was the basis for a booklet, which was presented to Black and guests at his retirement party in the spring of 1994. A copy of the booklet rounds out the collection.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into three series.
Series 1: Oral History Interview
Series 2: Transcripts
Series 3: Background Files
Biographical / Historical:
Tom Black was Smithsonian Magazine's first Director of Advertising. He joined the magazine in September 1969 and retired in the spring of 1994. During his tenure, the magazine became one of the major success stories in publishing, mushrooming from an initial circulation of 164,000 to over 2 million, making it the leading magazine in the so‑called quality field.
From the beginning, the magazine's readership ranked high in such demographic factors as level of education and disposable income. Black and his sales force, however, had problems at first trying to sell a magazine which many advertisers associated with a musty, dusty museum complex in Washington, D.C. Just when sales were at their lowest ebb, in the summer of 1971, sales turned the corner and took off.
Black's father, Howard Black, was Time Magazine's first ad salesman, and Tom grew up with Henry Luce, the father of modern magazine publishing, as a frequent guest in his parents' home. After serving in World War II, Tom Black joined J. Walter Thompson, then the world's leading advertising agency, as a trainee but soon decided that he was more interested in being a part of a new and growing enterprise. He joined the fledgling sales force of ABC Television and wrote the network's first rate card. After a short stint with The March of Time newsreel operation, he found himself on the sales force of Life Magazine, where he spent most of the 1950s, switching over to Time for much of the 1960s.
In 1969, at the age of 45, Black was looking for a new challenge when he was contacted by former Life editor Edward Thompson, who was starting a new magazine for the Smithsonian Institution. As Black modestly recalls it, Thompson probably remembered a favor Howard Black had done years before for Thompson and his son in making Tom Black Smithsonian's first ad director.
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center
The Estelle Ellis Collection (AC0423) also contains material on the history of magazines, in that case the consumer periodicals Seventeen and Charm /Glamour .
Provenance:
Tom Black agreed to be interviewed for the project and donated the related papers, which were photocopied, in December 1993.
The Tom Black Oral History Collection was made possible by a generous gift to the Center for Advertising History by Smithsonian Magazine.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
