Taking Off with Talk

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An Ohio-born divorcee with two adopted daughters, Mary Wells was educated at Carnegie Tech, wrote copy for Macy's, McCann-Erickson and Doyle Dane Bernbach before joining Jack Tinker & Partners in 1964. There, she and her present partners, Richard Rich, 37, and Stewart Greene, 39, ran some notable successes up the flagpole. They were responsible for the whimsical ads ("No matter what shape your stomach's in . . .") that boosted Alka-Seltzer sales by $13.3 million. When Braniff International President Harding Lawrence came to Tinker in 1965, Wells thought up the idea of painting Braniff's jets in pastel hues—and persuaded Lawrence to go along. Rich and Greene also had a hand in Braniff's "airstrip," which features stewardesses in quick-change Pucci-designed uniforms. Lawrence was delighted with the trio's part in his once stodgy airline's subsequent success. When Wells, Rich and Greene took off on their own, Braniff's president switched his $6,500,000 account to the new firm to assist their climb.

"Braniff or Alka-Seltzer." To help word of such coups get around, Founder Wells issued a sort of Madison Avenue manifesto promising more Braniff-style "advertising that will generate, as a byproduct, its own publicity." Western Union, Burma Shave and La Rosa spaghetti, she says, came clamoring for "a Braniff or an Alka-Seltzer." Utica Club beer signed up with the explanation that "it is once in a decade that an agency like this is formed."

Understandably, the 125-man agency is under high pressure to match such high expectations. The very first campaign that was developed entirely at W.R.G. was for Philip Morris' Benson & Hedges 100s. It started last August —and Philip Morris is already convinced that the self-kidding ads ("You'll never have to worry about lighting your nose") are responsible for the fastest start of any of its brands since Marlboros hit the market.

Other ads are following with the same soft sell, and winning genuine, though sometimes grudging admiration. Ned Doyle of Doyle Dane, which pioneered the style (Volkswagen, Avis) long ago, gives Mary Wells credit for being a "quite beautiful" ad woman ("Most of 'em look like haunted houses"). Recalling Mary's days at his shop, Doyle quickly adds that "everything she knows she learned here." Wherever she learned it, Mary Wells is surely one of the most successful graduates around.