Archives West Finding Aid

James Webb Young (1886-1973) had a long career in advertising, as the head of the Advertising Council, as key figure with J. Walter Thompson company, and with varied national and government agencies. Young spent fifty-two years in association with the Thompson company, starting as a copywriter and becoming branch office manager, creative director, senior vice president, and senior consultant. He was described as "the idea man behind the idea man.

During World War I, Young worked with the Creel Committee to develop the plan for American propaganda designed to effect the morale of German troops on the western front. He then opened the J. Walter Thompson offices in Europe in the later 1920s.

In the 1930s, in addition to his work with the Thomson company, he worked with the Department of the Interior to draft the plan for the Indian Arts and Drafts Board, of which he became a long standing member. His interest in Indian affairs continued with the marketing of their crafts.

In 1939, he served as the Director of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce where he secured the support of businesses for the gathering of new types of business statistics, now a basic guide to national economic forecasting. He then accepted a position with Nelson Rockefeller to organize the communications section of the Rockefeller staff while Rockefeller was Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs.

During World War II, Young became the chairman of the War Advertising Council. After the war, he worked with Paul Hoffman and the Ford Foundation. Young became the foundation's Consultant on Mass Communication , and as such established its television workshop which produced the experimental cultural program, "Omnibus."

In 1961 he was visiting professor at the University of Illinois where his professional associates have established the James Webb Young Fund for Education in Advertising.

Along the way, Young established two successful small businesses, one with his son, Webb Young, selling by mail the native craft work of New Mexico; the other, the growing of "Old Jim Young's Mountain Grown Apples," with sales from his New Mexico ranch. He presented the ranch to the University of New Mexico some years before his death in 1973.