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CNN Live Today

Discussion With Advertising Legend Mary Wells Lawrence

Aired May 14, 2002 - 11:49   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: You might not know her face, but advertising legend Mary Wells Lawrence is a part of your life, whether you know it or not. She originated slogans like this one, "I love New York," which is marking, can you believe it, some 25 years. "Quality is job one." "Try it, you'll like it." "I can't believe I ate the whole thing." And that stomach-soothing, "plop, plop, fizz, fizz."

Mary Wells Lawrence's memoir is called "It's A Big Life in Advertising," and she joins us from New York. this morning.

Good morning, a pleasure to get a chance to talk with you.

MARY WELLS LAWRENCE: Good morning. Nice to be here.

KAGAN: Can you believe it has been 25 years since "I love New York" debuted.

LAWRENCE: No, it was such a know momentous time. It stayed with me all these years. Of course, since September, it's become even more poignant somehow in my heart.

KAGAN: And in many hearts all around the world, I'm sure. What was the inspiration for it 25 years ago?

LAWRENCE: Well, I guess the problem, because the problem in New York was acute.

KAGAN: People didn't want it come to New York. People weren't having such a romance with it at that time.

LAWRENCE: Absolutely right, and I wasn't that sure that I wanted to have a romance with it either. I was just hoping they could pay my bills, you know. It was one of the great experiences of all time working with it.

KAGAN: So when you suggested, the city officials, who actually paid for it?

LAWRENCE: Well, the city paid for research that we did, and we contributed our time, and we discovered that many people didn't think about coming to New York for a vacation. And we proved to the legislature that it would pay them to invest if a little advertising, because they never had. And of course, that all evolved into the campaign that you are -- that, you know, you are familiar with, and it was an enormous help to the state in terms of income.

KAGAN: Absolutely.

I'm going to ask you about some other classics that you came up in. Number one, "plop, plop, fizz, fizz."

LAWRENCE: Well, that was a desperation campaign. It's odd, because at the time, the government was examining Aspirin, and any product that had Aspirin in it, as Alka-Seltzer did. They merely made it impossible to do any other kind of advertising than a very straightforward almost -- a campaign that didn't say anything at all. And this is temporary, but it was difficult for us.

And a couple of fellows at the agency who were particularly talented came up with the idea that just showing bubbles in a very elegant, charming way, would remind people of all of the great things about Alka-Seltzer, and it certainly did. It was very effective.

KAGAN: certainly did.

You mentioned agency, people not familiar with your story, you were a trailblazer, not in just coming up with some of these creative slogans, but in leading an agency, basically, you were trying to be a trail blazing woman at a time when this was an industry pretty much run by men.

LAWRENCE: Yes, it was, is.

KAGAN: Still is. So you dealt with that by leaving them and starting your own agency. You didn't like their sandbox, you went and made your own.

LAWRENCE: Absolutely. And I think women could. You know, I think it's an industry that welcomes women, and I think a lot of women are doing very well in it. They are coming up like mad. There aren't a whole lot of women running advertising agencies today. But there will be. There will be.

KAGAN: You see that in a lot of businesses today, that there is opportunities for women to come in, but when you get to the management level, that's where the decisions are made and ownership, maybe not as many opportunities even in this day and age.

LAWRENCE: Well, to be the head of any large business requires a lifestyle that is very tough, and men are brought up to think in those terms. And women, I think, are brought up to be a bit more horizontal, more interested in a wide variety of things. They find it, I think, rather daunting to limit their life the way have you to limit it if you are going to run a very large company.

KAGAN: Another thing you did, and this kind of reminds me of the Alka-Seltzer one, in that kind of going against convention, just kind of saying, what it is, and how you see it, even if some people go, oh my God, I can't believe she said that. The ad for Sure deodorant. I want to take a look at this and talk about this one.

(MUSIC)

KAGAN: So, Mary, when you put that one together, or your agency, were you sure that was going to go over?

LAWRENCE: Yes, we were.

KAGAN: I mean, come on, we are talking underarms.

LAWRENCE: I know, but I mean, really, if you think about it, it's done with such charm and it's done with such taste that it's not offensive, never was, you know. You can talk about almost anything on television if you handle it very carefully and with great taste, and gentleness and awareness of people's feelings.

KAGAN: And that is our challenge here at CNN on a day-to-day basis.

Looking back at all of your campaigns, is there one in particular you are most proud of?

LAWRENCE: Well, I think Braniff (ph), not because I married the president.

KAGAN: There is that, Mary. You married the guy who was heading the company.

LAWRENCE: But actually I think it's because we were required to create an airline. We got into every aspect of it. And that was particularly challenging, because we had to do it very fast and, it had to be something that would stand out almost immediately to the world. We didn't have time to have, you know, a slow process of a buildup. And it was so challenging that I think most of us felt it was the best moment of our life.

KAGAN: Let's bring this around full circle. Twenty-five years ago, New York was not such an easy place to love. And of course, since then, it improved much as a city and, given what's happened since September, worked it's way into the hearts of many people.

Do you love New York today?

LAWRENCE: Of course, who doesn't. That was the reason for the campaign. We knew that everybody who came from Virginia, or Oklahoma or wherever, they would all say the same thing, I love New York, which is what the campaign is based on.

And the music, when the music hit New York, and when the music hit the country, that music did so much to stir up everybody's warm love for New York. It was wonderful to watch.

KAGAN: Well, Mary Wells Lawrence, thanks for sharing your inspiration and your life work. Once again, her new book is "A Big Life in Advertising." If you take a look at the book, there is a lot more than just advertising. We have just touched on just a little bit today.

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