American Decades
Femina, Jerry Della 1936-
ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE
Iconoclast.
In a business world long dominated by staid, Ivy League men in gray flannel suits, Jerry Delia Femina exploded like a grenade in the late 1960s and 1970s. Not only did he propose a slogan for Panasonic, the Japanese electronic company, proclaiming, "From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor," but he made that campaign a financial success. (He recycled the title for his insider's book on advertising.)
Brooklyn Brash.
Every bit of sassiness, iconoclasm, and aggressiveness that he had learned growing up in blue-collar Brooklyn erupted in a business long renowned for its prudence and respectability. Della Femina turned all that on its head in the name of creativity. No one else dared produce a zipper ad with a baseball catcher telling his pitcher, "Your fly is open." A campaign for Pretty Feet had as its headline, "What's the ugliest part of your body?"
On His...
[The entire page is 686 words long]
1970's Business and the Economy
