Women

Jay Chiat hired ex-BMP planner Jane Newman and launched account planning in the U.S.

Dr. Herta Herzog became one of the founding partners in Jack Tinker & Partners, the industry’s first creative think tank, and then in 1961 was also name chairman of Interpublic’s Marplan research division.

McCann increased its percentage of female officers from zero to 10% in one fell swoop when it promoted four women to VP status in late 1949, warranting both Time magazine and New York Times coverage.

As the feminist movement was gaining in strength and popularity, the Phillip Morris Company teamed up with the famed Leo Burnett Agency to capitalize on shifting attitudes. The campaign was for their new brand of ultra-smooth Virginia Slims cigarettes.

Then just fifteen-year-old Shields had already risen to stardom as a young actress and model by the start of the eighties when she was infamously recruited by designer Calvin Klein to appear in a series of overtly sexy print and television ads.

At one time in American history, there was a war on margarine…we’d argue that it was former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s endorsement that allowed it to win the hearts and minds of everyday Americans.

March 2016, Nancy Hill, 4As President and CEO, announced goals on promoting gender equality in the ad business and tackling the media transparency issue.

#LikeAGirl was to changed perceptions about what it means to be a girl, in a way that would feel engaging and inspire renewed confidence in young millennials.

Ogilvy&Mather teamed up with Dove to launch the Campaign for Real Beauty in 2004, bringing to the fore the narrow definitions of female beauty. In doing so, a line of simple soaps and lotions took a risky step outside of the beauty and hygiene comfort zone.

In 1986, she became the first female 4As Chairman of the Board, on which she served till 1988. Beers is known for her strides to help break the glass ceiling for working women, a key topic of her book I’d Rather Be in Charge.

The founder and editor of Ms. Magazine gave a powerful speech at the 1973 4As Annual Meeting. Titled “What Do Women Expect,” she fervently and factually described the modern plight of women, minorities, and society as a whole.

At the age of 23, young female copywriter Ilon Specht of McCann Erickson had no idea the longevity her simple line would have.

The first female copywriter, Helen Lansdowne, was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame in 1967, three years after her death. Her 1911 line “A skin you love to touch” for a soap ad is considered to be the first use of sex appeal in advertising.

Upon founding Wells, Rich, Greene in 1966, Mary Wells Lawrence became the first woman to found, own, and run a major agency and the first female CEO of a company traded on the Big Board of the New York Stock Exchange.

There are some stories the hit show Mad Men didn’t tell. Perhaps most notable is that of Caroline Jones, the African-American secretary turned copywriter trainee turned advertising executive.

After graduating from Barnard College, Phyllis Robinson had various copywriting jobs before securing a spot at Grey Advertising.

With the outbreak of the second World War in 1939 came a huge depletion of the industrialized workforce. Enter Rosie the Riveter, a powerful character created by a government campaign aimed at recruiting women to join the munitions industry.