Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Wk 4 EOC: Jerry Della Femina

Jerry Della Femina was born in Brooklyn on July 22 of 1936 to Italian immigrant parents, he grew to be one of the biggest names in the advertising industry. Della Femina got his first star under Daniel & Charles Agency in 1961. After years of not finding common ground with other agency superiors he and three associates opened their own Agency in New York. Della Femina, Travisano & Partners, became of in 1967 and “By the 1970s, it had become one of the industry's biggest revenue makers by stressing creativity.” Jerry was one of the leaders in the movement of transforming the industry from an industry favoring reverence and hierarchy to one promoting humor and casual openness. He created many controversy and did some rule breaking to jolt the movement. For instance an event that took place was explained “Della Femina attacking the head of his firm over an unused ad; taking a whole creative department out on strike until he got an ad running in the New York Times magazine”. This controversy and rule breaking, like spending his original agency's last few thousand dollars on a blowout designed to make them look successful, gained him three new accounts. He took risks and they worked out in his favor. He is a big inspiration and model for the big hit TV show Mad Men characters. He has openly shared that the show is not depicting the time and essence of what really went on in the industry during the 60’s. “Della Femina says that shows like Mad Men actually play down the debauchery he witnessed as an ad man in the '60s.” “In 1999, Advertising Age recognized Mr. Della Femina as one of the top 100 advertising people of the 20th century for his determination, sense of humor, dedication and love of advertising”. Today Jerry Della Femina is 90 years old and still very relevant in the lives of current and future advertisers.

 



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