I used to work for Selfridges & Co’s advertising agency, BBH. I spent a lot of time in the store, just a 15-minute walk from the office, trying to capture what they still refer to as “the spirit of Selfridges”, a phrase that had been used by its American founder, Harry Gordon Selfridge, ever since the store opened in 1909.
When the agency was briefed in 1996, we were told about Harry Selfridge’s flamboyant lifestyle: his gambling, womanising and generous gift-giving. We were also told he was a marketing genius: fond of bold, attention-grabbing ads and stunts in his hot pursuit of having the best department store in London, albeit with a marked disregard for financial restraint.
At his previous job at the Marshall Field’s department store in Chicago, he had been credited with popularising phrases such as “only [x] shopping days until Christmas” and “the customer is always right.” He believed shopping should be enjoyed as a leisure activity rather than endured as a necessity, a philosophy reflected in his London venture’s lavish in-store attractions, such as carnivals, aeroplanes, moving mannequins and its iconic window displays, including a corner “signature” showcase, which would be signed by visiting stars. These were designed to bring the spirit of the store out onto Oxford Street and lure customers inside.
The “Earl of Oxford Street” was, indeed, a revolutionary retailer. The master showman understood that selling was as much about storytelling as it was about goods. Despite his past extravagant spending, the agency was assigned a sensible, modest budget to create a new brand campaign for the approaching millennium. Even so, at BBH on Kingly Street, the Selfridges brief caused considerable excitement.
The team had pitched for the business by proposing an approach that directly linked the store to London, positioning it as an integral part of the capital and its history. The tagline was “It’s Worth Living in London”, supported by satirical imagery that offered playful commentary and sometimes pointed reflections on contemporary life in the city and the supposed alternatives in the country.
The posters were considered daring and groundbreaking. Apart from being visually striking, they featured no products at all for the first time. The strategy was to keep Selfridges relevant and rooted as a department store for Londoners while differentiating it from its competitors. In doing so, the campaign subtly nudged its rivals into distinct territories: Harrods for the wealthy, Harvey Nichols for the elite/glam, and Selfridges for Londoners.
Two smaller campaigns also ran during the year: Christmas in July and the Mid-Season Designer Sale. Both had been going for decades having been started by Selfridge himself, who delighted in impromptu, spur-of-the-moment events that might have seemed haphazard in the world of retail.
In 1997, during my weekly visits to the marketing team, I watched as the new “central” escalator area was installed to improve customer circulation and a stunning atrium was unveiled as a focal point. The operation became a spectacle in itself, as the store underwent a major refurbishment and prepared to match the standard of a new branch opening in Manchester the following year.
At the end of the wood-panelled corridor on the fourth floor was the managing director’s office, formerly Harry Selfridge’s own. His seat was now filled by Vittorio Radice, one of my favourite clients ever. He was unpredictable, energetic and endlessly inventive. One day, he insisted the agency create lots of little messages for the back of Selfridges receipts, in the style of Baci chocolates’ “love notes”.
When I took the idea back to BBH, it frustrated the creative teams who wanted larger campaigns for their portfolios. Ten-word messages on the backs of bits of paper held little appeal when they could instead be shooting a TV commercial in LA.
The receipt brief became invisible. Everyone knew it existed, but no one touched it, or claimed they had not seen it. Meanwhile, Vittorio called me in for yet another surprise.
“Julie. Do you know what’s coming back into fashion right now?”
“Er, no.”
Silence.
“It’s Gucci, of course! Don’t you know? Gucci ties are back! Let’s do something on Gucci ties! Perhaps a half-page press ad?”
Walking back down Oxford Street, I now had two briefs for the creatives to ignore.
One fascinating detail I learned about the store’s layout was that when it opened in 1909, Oxford Street was crowded with horse-drawn carts. The smell of horse manure wafted in every time the revolving doors turned. To counter this, Selfridge positioned the perfume department at the front of the store, offering customers an immediate escape into a more pleasant aroma.
Eventually, Harry Selfridge’s excessive spending caught up with him and in 1941 he was ousted by the board. When he died in 1947, aged 89, his estate was valued at just $6,176, compared with $40 million 20 years earlier. It was a meagre end to an American-in-London rags-to-riches story, but his innovative marketing legacy endured. Despite multiple owners and buyouts, Selfridges has consistently upheld the principles he established.
I was telling my daughter, Sadie, all of this as we walked back from the London Palladium, having just seen the always-hilarious annual pantomime with Julian Clary. We talked about how Selfridges captured the post-World War One celebratory mood of the capital with holiday and picnic imagery, and by embracing Art Deco fashion and expanding its womenswear department from gloves and hats to dresses, skirts, blouses, shoes, undergarments and more.
She said she would love to see this season’s window displays and suggested went when they were lit up after dark, around 10:30pm. I was expecting to show her the Disney-themed windows I had mentioned in a previous piece for On London. Instead, I was met with something else entirely, and I laughed, thinking that the spirit of Mr Selfridge was still surprising me. The windows, of course, had been blasted with a SALE.
Follow Julie Hamill on Instagram. Posters from It’s Worth Living In London campaign for Selfridges by Hugh Todd and Adam Scholes for BBH (Bartle Bogle Hegarty).
OnLondon.co.uk is funded by sales of publisher and editor Dave Hill’s twice-weekly newsletter On London Extra. To start receiving it, become a paying subscriber to Dave’s personal Substack or follow any Support link on this site. Thanks.