The Battle of the Employees

( words)

Employees are in the focus of advertising campaigns of hotels since decades. But the famous smiling doorman has long been replaced by more natural, "daily-life" photographs. Breaching the rules, the organised faux-pas has become de rigueur. From the cramped smile to more relaxed behaviour we have gone a long way. But you will be surprised to see how early it actually started:

  In 1900, this liftboy had to pose for the Pera Palace Istanbul advertising booklet. One of the earliest hospitality industry models.

A daring presentation in the 1920s: "The footmen who couldn't resist it" graced the New Year's menu of the Savoy in 1924/5.

A pageboy at the hotel Sacher in Vienna was the star of this 1920s campaign.

This picture from the 1980s ‘A moment of personal delight’ advertising campaign of Mandarin Oriental became one of the most successful images, transporting a sympathetic flair of The Oriental Bangkok. For the first time employees were shown while performing a faux-pas that became world famous. What on earthe did he tell him? was certainly the question when looking at the picture. What did he say?

The Imperial and Bristol Vienna used their doormen on the cover of a digital press kit (2000, Traveller's Notepad, by famoushotels)

The Ritz in Madrid bets on the traditional way and employes its doorman as the model for its sympathy campaign.

 Annie Leibovitz second (2009) campaign for The Peninsula, here Hong Kong; a look behind the scenes - "back of the house".

2009: The Waldorf Astoria New York has its very own discreet way of presenting its staff. For the word "discreet" the Thesaurus suggests the following emotions: carefulness, caution, wariness, chariness, guardedness; tact, tactfulness, diplomacy, delicacy, sensitivity, prudence, judiciousness.