For well over a century, women played controversial roles in the advertising industry, many as copywriters struggling in a male-dominated industry. But a dozen rose to the upper echelons of their companies and were elected to the AAF Hall of Fame, the industry’s highest honor.
The AAF hall recognizes men and women in ad agencies, ad media and in the companies that purchase significant amounts of advertising.
Stephen F. Fox wrote in "The Mirror Makers" that women held a wide variety of jobs in the fledgling ad business in the decades following the Civil War. But men dominated the industry by 1923 when Erma Perham Proetz began her career as a copywriter.
At Gardner Advertising Agency of St. Louis, she gained national recognition for her work promoting PET evaporated milk, developing recipes, writing articles, conducting a national radio show and even operating a test kitchen for PET products. She rose to executive VP of the Gardner agency. In 1952, eight years after her death, she became the first woman inducted into the AAF hall of fame.
Helen Resor and Woodbury Soap
It was 15 years before AAF installed Helen Lansdowne Resor as the second woman in the hall of fame and 13 more years before Shirley Polykoff became the third woman installed in 1980.
AAF said Resor, too, started as a copywriter and rose to become vice president of the J. Walter Thompson agency. She produced the Woodbury Soap campaign built around the slogan "A skin you love to touch," one of the sexier ad lines of its time. She also produced the Pond’s Cold Cream ads pioneering endorsements by society leaders and royalty.
At Foote, Cone & Belding (FCB), Polykoff produced the Clairol "Does she...or doesn’t she?" campaign, helping to increase the number of women coloring their hair from 7% to nearly 50%. She eventually became executive vice president and creative director of FCB and later opened her own agency.
Retail Copywriter Bernice Fitz-Gibbon
Bernice Fitz-Gibbon entered the hall of fame in 1981 on the strength of her success as a retail copywriter and marketer for Macy’s, Wanamaker’s and Gimbel’s. She coined the slogan "Nobody, but nobody, undersells Gimbels." She also improved the image of Wanamaker’s by featuring tiny editorials at the top of her store ads, In the early 1950s, she was reported to be the highest paid woman in advertising.
The other women elected to the AAF hall of fame are:
1989--Jean Wade Reinlaub, a copywriter who became vice president of BBDO.
1996--Jo Foxworth, a copywriter who started at McCann-Erickson, later operated her own agency, Jo Foxworth Inc., and wrote several books, including "Boss Lady."
1997--Gertrude Crain, who guided Crain Communications from seven to 27 business publications, including Advertising Age
1998--Janet Wolff. She was JWT’s youngest vice president and creative director and later executive VP at William Esty. Also wrote eight books.
2000—Patricia Martin served as director of marketing support at Warner –Lambert and was AAF’s first woman chair.
2001—Katherine Graham served as publisher of the Washington Post and built a media empire that AAF said provided "an environment conducive to the advertiser’s message."
2008--Andrea Alstrup was vice president for advertising at Johnson & Johnson, manager of its Marketing & Advertising College and president of Raritan Advertising Inc., J&J’s in-house ad agency.
Charlotte Beers Agency CEO
2009—Charlotte Beers headed two of the industry’s largest ad agencies, J. Walter Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather, and was the first chair of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA).
All of the women in the hall of fame also distinguished themselves in civic and charitable work outside the industry.
American Advertising Hall of Fame
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