Mary Wells Lawrence
Encyclopedia
Mary Wells Lawrence is a retired American advertising executive. She was the founding president of Wells Rich Greene, an advertising agency
known for its creativity and innovative work, and the first woman CEO
of a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange
.
In the late 1940s, Mary Wells studied for two years at the Carnegie Institute of Technology
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
. She relocated to New York City
, where she studied theatre
and drama
, and had by 1952 become Macy's
fashion advertising manager
. Wells was a copywriter
and copy group head at McCann Erickson
in 1953, later joining the Lennen & Newell advertising agency's "brain trust
." She began a seven-year tenure at the Doyle Dane Bernbach agency (now DDB Worldwide
) in 1957. In her 2002 book, A Big Life in Advertising, Wells cited DDB partners James Edwin Doyle
, Maxwell Dane
, and William Bernbach
as significant influences on her subsequent career.
Wells married former Braniff Airways president Harding Lawrence in 1967. He died in 2002 at age 81.
was a critical factor in the airline's turnaround. She signed on Alexander Girard
as project designer, Alexander Calder
for aircraft paint schemes, and Emilio Pucci
for uniforms for flight attendants and crew.
In 1966, she founded the Wells Rich Greene (WRG) advertising agency as its president with creative partners Richard Rich and Stewart Greene as company treasurer
and secretary
respectively. Braniff remained a Wells Rich Greene client through 1968. Other major WRG clients included American Motors
, Cadbury Schweppes
, IBM
, MCI Communications
, Pan American World Airways
, Procter & Gamble
, Ralston Purina
, RC Cola, and Sheraton Hotels and Resorts
.
By 1969, Mary Wells was reported to be the highest-paid executive in advertising. She was selected by U.S. Vice President Nelson Rockefeller to be a member of his Commission on Critical Choices for America, and invited by U.S. President Gerald Ford
to represent business at an Economic Summit in Washington, D.C.
Mary Wells stepped down as CEO in 1990 and the agency was sold to Boulet Dru Dupuy Petit (BDDP). After ceasing operations in 1998, Wells Rich Greene BDDP donated its archive of print and television ads to Duke University
's John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising and Marketing History.
):
, a website created, owned, and written by women for women, which launched on March 8, 2008, International Women's Day
. The wOw founders are Joni Evans
, Peggy Noonan
, Liz Smith
, Lesley Stahl
, and Mary Wells Lawrence. The WOW contributors are Candice Bergen
, Joan Juliet Buck
, Joan Ganz Cooney
, Joni Evans
, Whoopi Goldberg
, Judith Martin
, Sheila Nevins, Peggy Noonan
, Julia Reed
, Liz Smith
, Lesley Stahl, Marlo Thomas
, Lily Tomlin
, Jane Wagner
, and Mary Wells Lawrence.
Advertising agency
An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services...
known for its creativity and innovative work, and the first woman CEO
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
of a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
.
In the late 1940s, Mary Wells studied for two years at the Carnegie Institute of Technology
Carnegie Institute of Technology
The Carnegie Institute of Technology , is the name for Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering. It was first called the Carnegie Technical Schools, or Carnegie Tech, when it was founded in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie who intended to build a “first class technical school” in Pittsburgh,...
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
. She relocated to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where she studied theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
and drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, and had by 1952 become Macy's
Macy's
Macy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...
fashion advertising manager
Advertising management
Advertising management is a career path in the advertising industry. Advertising & promotions managers may work for an agency, a PR firm, a media outlet, or may be hired directly by a company to develop branding for the company's product or service...
. Wells was a copywriter
Copywriting
Copywriting is the use of words and ideas to promote a person, business, opinion or idea. Although the word copy may be applied to any content intended for printing , the term copywriter is generally limited to promotional situations, regardless of the medium...
and copy group head at McCann Erickson
McCann Erickson
McCann Erickson is a global advertising agency network, with offices in more than 130 countries. McCann is a subsidiary of the Interpublic Group of Companies, one of the four large holding companies in the advertising industry....
in 1953, later joining the Lennen & Newell advertising agency's "brain trust
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
." She began a seven-year tenure at the Doyle Dane Bernbach agency (now DDB Worldwide
DDB Worldwide
DDB Worldwide Communications Group Inc., known internationally as DDB, is a worldwide marketing communications network. It is owned by Omnicom Group Inc, one of the world's largest advertising holding companies...
) in 1957. In her 2002 book, A Big Life in Advertising, Wells cited DDB partners James Edwin Doyle
James Edwin Doyle
James Edwin "Ned" Doyle was an American advertising executive and a co-founder of the Doyle Dane Bernbach agency established in Manhattan in 1949 and known as DDB. This agency, which he founded with Mac Dane and Bill Bernbach, bears the initials of the last name of each...
, Maxwell Dane
Maxwell Dane
Maxwell "Mac" Dane was an American advertising executive and co-founder of the Doyle Dane Bernbach agency, known as DDB, that was established in Manhattan in 1949. For advertising against U.S...
, and William Bernbach
William Bernbach
William Bernbach was an American advertising creative director. He was one of the three founders in 1949 of the international advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach...
as significant influences on her subsequent career.
Wells married former Braniff Airways president Harding Lawrence in 1967. He died in 2002 at age 81.
Wells Rich Greene
Mary Wells' profile in the advertising world increased dramatically in the mid-1960s when her advertising campaign "The End of the Plain Plane" for Braniff International AirwaysBraniff International Airways
Braniff International Airways was an American airline that operated from 1928 until 1982, primarily in the midwestern and southwestern U.S., South America, Panama, and in its later years also Asia and Europe...
was a critical factor in the airline's turnaround. She signed on Alexander Girard
Alexander Girard
Alexander Girard affectionately known as Sandro, was an architect and a textile designer born in New York City to an American mother from Boston and a French-Italian father. He was raised in Florence, Italy...
as project designer, Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing mobile sculptures. In addition to mobile and stable sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry, jewelry and household objects.-Childhood:Alexander "Sandy" Calder was born in Lawnton,...
for aircraft paint schemes, and Emilio Pucci
Emilio Pucci
Emilio Pucci, Marquis of Barsento , was a Florentine Italian fashion designer and politician. He and his eponymous company are synonymous with geometric prints in a kaleidoscope of colours.-Early life:...
for uniforms for flight attendants and crew.
In 1966, she founded the Wells Rich Greene (WRG) advertising agency as its president with creative partners Richard Rich and Stewart Greene as company treasurer
Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The adjective for a treasurer is normally "tresorial". The adjective "treasurial" normally means pertaining to a treasury, rather than the treasurer.-Government:...
and secretary
Company secretary
A company secretary is a senior position in a private company or public organisation, normally in the form of a managerial position or above. In the United States it is known as a corporate secretary....
respectively. Braniff remained a Wells Rich Greene client through 1968. Other major WRG clients included American Motors
American Motors
American Motors Corporation was an American automobile company formed by the 1954 merger of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company. At the time, it was the largest corporate merger in U.S. history.George W...
, Cadbury Schweppes
Cadbury Schweppes
Cadbury is a confectionery company owned by Kraft Foods and is the industry's second-largest globally after Mars, Incorporated. Headquartered in Uxbridge, London, United Kingdom, the company operates in more than 50 countries worldwide....
, IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, MCI Communications
MCI Communications
MCI Communications Corp. was an American telecommunications company that was instrumental in legal and regulatory changes that led to the breakup of the AT&T monopoly of American telephony and ushered in the competitive long-distance telephone industry. It was headquartered in Washington,...
, Pan American World Airways
Pan American World Airways
Pan American World Airways, commonly known as Pan Am, was the principal and largest international air carrier in the United States from 1927 until its collapse on December 4, 1991...
, Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....
, Ralston Purina
Nestlé Purina PetCare
Nestlé Purina PetCare Company is the pet food division of Swiss-based Nestlé S.A., following its acquisition of the American Ralston Purina Company on December 12, 2001 and subsequent merger with Nestlé's Friskies PetCare Company. As a wholly owned subsidiary, it is headquartered at the General...
, RC Cola, and Sheraton Hotels and Resorts
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts is Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide's largest and second oldest brand . Starwood's headquarters are in White Plains, New York.-Sheraton history:...
.
By 1969, Mary Wells was reported to be the highest-paid executive in advertising. She was selected by U.S. Vice President Nelson Rockefeller to be a member of his Commission on Critical Choices for America, and invited by U.S. President Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
to represent business at an Economic Summit in Washington, D.C.
Mary Wells stepped down as CEO in 1990 and the agency was sold to Boulet Dru Dupuy Petit (BDDP). After ceasing operations in 1998, Wells Rich Greene BDDP donated its archive of print and television ads to Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
's John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising and Marketing History.
Notable agency slogans
A partial listing of Wells Rich Greene slogans (the first three were for Alka-SeltzerAlka-Seltzer
Alka-Seltzer is an effervescent antacid and pain reliever first marketed by the Dr. Miles Medicine Company. It was developed by Treneer in Elkhart Indiana. Alka-Seltzer is marketed for relief of minor aches, pains, inflammation, fever, headache, heartburn, sour stomach, indigestion, and hangovers,...
):
- Plop plop, fizz fizz
- I can't believe I ate the whole thing (winner of the 1971 Clio Award)
- Try it, you'll like it
- I ♥ New YorkI Love New YorkI Love New York is both a logo and a song that are the basis of an advertising campaign and have been used since the mid-1970s to promote tourism in New York City, and later to promote New York State as well. The trademarked logo appears in souvenir shops and brochures throughout the state, some...
- Trust the Midas touch
- At FordFord Motor CompanyFord Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
, Quality is Job 1 - Flick your Bic
- Raise your hand if you're Sure
- Friends don't let friends drive drunk
Honours
- Named one of the top ten newsmakers of the 1960s by Advertising AgeAdvertising AgeAdvertising Age is a magazine, delivering news, analysis and data on marketing and media. The magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930...
. - The youngest member to be inducted into the Copywriters Hall of Fame.
- Named the 1971 Advertising Woman of the Year by the American Advertising FederationAmerican Advertising FederationThe American Advertising Federation , headquartered in Washington, D.C., is the oldest national advertising trade association, representing 50,000 professionals in the advertising industry. The AAF has a national network of 200 ad clubs located in ad communities across the United States...
. - Inducted into the American Advertising Federation Hall of FameAmerican Advertising Federation Hall of FameThe Advertising Hall of Fame is a list of notable advertising leaders in America as chosen by the American Advertising Federation.It was founded in 1948 as a result of a proposal by the New York Ad Club and its president, Andrew Haire, to the Advertising Federation of America, the predecessor...
in 1999.
Book
- Mary Wells Lawrence. A Big Life in Advertising. Hardcover: Alfred A. KnopfAlfred A. KnopfAlfred A. Knopf, Inc. is a New York publishing house, founded by Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. in 1915. It was acquired by Random House in 1960 and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Random House. The publishing house is known for its borzoi trademark , which was designed by co-founder...
, 2002, ISBN 0-375-40912-2 Paperback: Touchstone, 2003, ISBN 0-743-24586-5
wowOwow
Mary Wells Lawrence is one of the five founders of wowOwowWowOwow
wowOwow is a U.S.-based website publication run by Joni Evans. The site was launched by CEO Joni Evans, Mary Wells Lawrence, Liz Smith, Lesley Stahl, and Peggy Noonan on March 8, 2008...
, a website created, owned, and written by women for women, which launched on March 8, 2008, International Women's Day
International Women's Day
International Women's Day , originally called International Working Women’s Day, is marked on March 8 every year. In different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women's economic, political and...
. The wOw founders are Joni Evans
Joni Evans
Joni Evans is an American book publisher of over 100 bestsellers, writer, editor, and literary agent. Evans’s background and career in publishing includes posts as Senior Vice President of the William Morris Agency , President and Publisher of Simon & Schuster , and Publisher at Random House .-Life...
, Peggy Noonan
Peggy Noonan
Peggy Noonan is an American author of seven books on politics, religion, and culture and a weekly columnist for The Wall Street Journal...
, Liz Smith
Liz Smith (journalist)
Mary Elizabeth "Liz" Smith is an American gossip columnist. She is known as The Grand Dame of Dish.- Early life and career :...
, Lesley Stahl
Lesley Stahl
Lesley Rene Stahl is an American television journalist. Since 1991, she has reported for CBS on 60 Minutes.-Personal life:...
, and Mary Wells Lawrence. The WOW contributors are Candice Bergen
Candice Bergen
Candice Patricia Bergen is an American actress and former fashion model.She is known for starring in two TV series, as the title character on the situation comedy Murphy Brown , for which she won five Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards; and as Shirley Schmidt on the comedy-drama Boston Legal...
, Joan Juliet Buck
Joan Juliet Buck
Joan Juliet Buck is an American writer, social critic, and actress. She was the editor in chief of French Vogue from 1994 to 2001.-Background:...
, Joan Ganz Cooney
Joan Ganz Cooney
Joan Ganz Cooney is an American television producer. She is one of the founders of the Children's Television Workshop , the organization famous for the creation of the children's television show Sesame Street. Cooney received her B.A...
, Joni Evans
Joni Evans
Joni Evans is an American book publisher of over 100 bestsellers, writer, editor, and literary agent. Evans’s background and career in publishing includes posts as Senior Vice President of the William Morris Agency , President and Publisher of Simon & Schuster , and Publisher at Random House .-Life...
, Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...
, Judith Martin
Judith Martin
Judith Martin , better known by the pen name Miss Manners, is an American journalist, author, and etiquette authority. Martin's uncle was economist and labor historian Selig Perlman.- Early life and career :...
, Sheila Nevins, Peggy Noonan
Peggy Noonan
Peggy Noonan is an American author of seven books on politics, religion, and culture and a weekly columnist for The Wall Street Journal...
, Julia Reed
Julia Reed
Julia Reed is a British television presenter who grew up in Mississippi.Reed is best known as the co-presenter of the British game show Robot Wars from 2000 to 2002. She took over the role from Philippa Forrester since Forrester was unable to participate in the programme due to pregnancy...
, Liz Smith
Liz Smith (journalist)
Mary Elizabeth "Liz" Smith is an American gossip columnist. She is known as The Grand Dame of Dish.- Early life and career :...
, Lesley Stahl, Marlo Thomas
Marlo Thomas
Margaret Julia “Marlo” Thomas is an American actress, producer, and social activist known for her starring role on the TV series That Girl . She also serves as National Outreach Director for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...
, Lily Tomlin
Lily Tomlin
Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin is an American actress, comedienne, writer, and producer. Tomlin has been a major force in American comedy since the late 1960's when she began a career as a stand up comedian and became a featured performer on television's Laugh-in...
, Jane Wagner
Jane Wagner
Jane Wagner is an American writer, director and producer. Wagner is best known as Lily Tomlin's comedy writer, collaborator and life partner....
, and Mary Wells Lawrence.
Further reading
- The Lady Who Got an Era. Student thesis for Fall 1996 course in the Department of Advertising in the University of Texas at AustinUniversity of Texas at AustinThe University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
College of Communication. Copyright 1996, Youngseon Kim. Thesis hosted online by the University's Center for Interactive Advertising (ciAd).
External links
- Mary Wells Lawrence at wowOwow
- "Madison Avenue", BBC Adam CurtisAdam CurtisAdam Curtis is a British BAFTA winning documentarian and a writer, television producer, director and narrator. He works for BBC Current Affairs.-Early life and education:Curtis was born in 1955...
blog discusses Wells' career and features a Banff International Airlines film from 1967 in which Wells speaks.