What is great advertising?
"Great ads should make you nervous about what you're not buying" | Paying hommage to an Advertising pioneer | Vol. 43
Good morning Move Fast, Think Slow Readers! Welcome to volume 43 of MF/TS. Hey, we might crack Volume 50 this year!
As I said in January, the goal was to write 1x per week in 2024. I haven’t been perfect, but with 16 volumes completed this year, we’re definitely doing better than in years past.
Today, we’re paying hommage to an advertising great.
If I had to take my guess. You have absolutely no idea who this person is. But after reading this week’s newsletter. You will.
She came up with an iconic campaign (I ♥ New York), dominated as a Woman in a male-dominated industry (in an inequitable era), started her own Ad agency, was the first female CEO to have an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, beat Cancer, raised children, and had a home in the South of France.
In short, Mary Wells Lawrence was an absolute boss.
LET’S TAKE A STEP BACK
I’m guessing many of MF/TS readers are fans of this TV show.
In this TV show, there was an awesome lead character, Peggy Olson, played by Elisabeth Moss.
In the Madison Avenue-focused drama that ran from 2007 to 2015, Peggy was a rising creative star working alongside the lead in the show/Creative Director Don Draper.
PEGGY’S TRAJECTORY IN THE SHOW
Peggy goes from Exec Assistant to Copywriter after uncovering customer insights and coming up with copy that moves the client (and customers’) heartstrings
After handling most of the creative work for Don Draper, she moves on to another agency to become the Chief Copywriter
She then wins the Heinz business, beating out her former agency and boss (Draper) in the process
#BossLevel moves.
This show was set in the 1950s/1960s. These moves are next level when you consider the climate they are set in.
But was Peggy Olson a fictional character or based on real life?
MEET MARY WELLS LAWRENCE
Mary Wells Lawrence is the real-life archetype that Peggy’s character is based on. She just passed away at the age of 95 last week—RIP (NYT). 🙏
Starts as an Ad Manager at Macy’s, then moves McCann-Erickson, leading creative campaigns
Years later, she leaves Tinker & Partners after they won’t make her President
Starts her own ad agency (Wells Rich Greene) and steals the biggest client from her former agency
This is the first woman-owned national advertising agency ever
The agency does SO well that she becomes the first woman CEO of a publically listed company on the New York Stock Exchange
By the 1970s, she is reputed as the most highly paid / sought out ad exec in the business (earning +$1MM/year in today’s dollars)
In the early 90s she sells the agency for hundreds of millions of dollars after taking it private
NY Times Stuart Elliot said: “she was arguably the most powerful and successful woman ever to work in advertising.”
And she came up with iconic, game-changing creative work throughout her entire career.
For example - this campaign:
Yeah.
That one.
The iconic brand campaign that New York City still co-adopts to this day.
So the story goes Re: I ♥ New York :
In an effort to bring [the city] some desperately needed cash, Wells Rich Greene were called in.
After a bit of research, WRG found a truth; deep down, wherever people were from, they loved the New York.
Not the reality of New York, but the idea ‘New York’, the spirit of it.
First, Mary calls up Milton Glaser, she briefs him in a taxi to design a logo/bumper sticker thingy, for New Yorkers to get behind, he draws this before they get out of the cab.
And that little scribble became this:
And this spoke to millions of people. So much so that 47 years later, this thing still cooks.
Absolutely epic.
Dave Dye has an amazing collection of Mary’s creative work over the years. Here are a few of my faves.
The work Wells Lawrence spearheaded for clients—at all the agencies where she worked—was funny, intelligent, and creatively groundbreaking. - AdAge
In today’s terms, one can say: Mary was a beast with it.
ADVERTISING STRATEGY/CREATIVE WISDOM
One quote from Mary that struck me:
“The best advertising should make you nervous about what you’re not buying.”
Ooof, that’s a punch of truth straight to the gut.
It's an old but still viable creative tactic of playing with humans' Fear Of Missing Out, aka FOMO.
Pluck at a human's curiosity of the question: am I not on the inside track? Am I missing out?
It’s deep.
Maybe even devilishly deep.
But great creative ideas tend to be in the depths.
The depths of where the heart and soul meet.
And what matters to the hearts always rings more powerful than matters of the mind.
It’s at those depths where wonderful stories can be born. It’s in that place where we co-opt ideas and turn them into something of our own. And that’s when ideas become bigger than the idea in itself.
The word “brand” is derived from the Old Norse word, which means “to burn by fire.”
It’s safe to say, Mary set many fires throughout her life.
That kind of brilliance and that kind of run is deserving of a hat tip.
You probably had no idea who Mary Wells Lawrence was.
But now you do.
What a legend.
P.S. While we have no idea what it was like to see Mary pitching ideas in the room, we can imagine. Here’s a scene from Mad Men where Peggy wins the Heinz business.
Substack is telling me I’m at length for this week’s email. Might have to double-dip with the MF/TS newsletter drops this week. Stay tuned for more…
IMAGES OF THE WEEK
Go forth.
Stay safe.
Ride the wave.
-Mitch