Real Men and Women of Madison Avenue

Last night The One Club hosted The Real Men and Women of Madison Avenue and Their Impact on American Culture at Healy Hall in the New York Public Library’s Science, Industry and Business Library. The event was well attended with over 200 people on hand to view the nine exhibits as well as the interactive kiosk and loop of revolutionary television advertisements. Icons of the industry in attendance included Ed McCabe, Amil Gargano, Julian Koenig and George Lois as well as many other industry insiders and up and comers.

The layout of the exhibits is well crafted and designed in a quasi-timeline structure. The first exhibit is devoted to Early Pioneers in the 20^th Century including Claude Hopkins, Bernice Fitz-Gibbon and particularly Shirley Polykoff, creator of the “Does she or doesn’t she” line of advertisements for Clairol.

The second exhibit Founders of Madison Avenue is dedicated to such visionaries as Raymond Rubicam and Rosser Reeves, the creative mind behind the M&Ms "melts in your mouth not in your hand" campaign.

The fourth exhibit The Creative Revolution includes Helmut Krone’s ingenious VW advertisements as well as his famous “We try harder” Avis campaign.

The following exhibit features the work of McCabe and Lois, two titans of the industry and is titled The Iconoclasts and Rebels. Lois, creator of the "I want my MTV" catchphrase is probably best known and renown for his often subversive covers of Esquire magazine from 1962-1972, including the Mohammad Ali cover seen below (for further reading on Lois and Esquire in the 60's see this captivating Vanity Fair article)

The final exhibits include explorations of The West Coast Explosion, The Creative Directors, Entertainers & Designers, and Madison Avenue Across the Pond. Each exhibit did well to balance the sensibilities of novices in the field with veterans with years of advertising experience. The exhibition is on view through September 26th.