Jerry Della Femina I’ve never heard of until today. I typed his name into Google and all of a sudden I am bombarded with “From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor.” Here is the story. The company Della Femina worked for was given an account from their new client, Panasonic. They had to sell Panasonic’s televisions. “It was Della Femina's first day on the job and he was surrounded by account executives, art directors and copywriters awaiting his direction. Finally he cleared his throat. "I've got it! How about this for a headline: 'From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor.'" (http://www.designobserver.com/observatory/entry.html?entry=14668) So who was this guy who on his first day came up with such an big idea. Years before, back when he was trying to break into the business, Jerry Della Femina was practically an Italian nobody from Brooklyn, trying to get into a world where clients like Ford didn’t want to work with, “his kind.” (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128695927) “He muscled his way into his first job by sending weeks of samples signed only with his initials before presenting himself triumphantly at the agency's door, announcing, "I'm J.D.F." He immediately went to work creating not just ads but his own image.” He came out on top with shocking and unexpected ideas for advertising. Like his idea for Panasonic’s televisions he also came up with things like using Hitler and the holocaust as an example of not reading. Who would’ve come up with that before? “The irreverence that characterized much of his work obscures the fact that Della Femina's creative upstarts demonstrated strengths that included determination, a sense of humor, dedication and a love of advertising.” (http://adage.com/century/people071.html) I believe that the sense of humor ever present in his ads might have been a bit scandalized but if I had seen them it would’ve won me over completely.
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