A Big Life in Advertising (Hardcover)

by Mary Wells Lawrence (Author) "I was working at McCann Erickson for the money, for little black dance dresses that showed off my Norwegian legs, for my baby daughters' smocked..." (more)
Key Phrases: new javelin, big agencies, color program, Wells Rich Greene, New York, American Motors (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
A colorful mix of historical narrative, revealing personal memoir, and sassy industry tell-all, A Big Life in Advertising offers up Mary Wells Lawrence's bubbling take on life, love, and plugging products. Well, spills it into your lap, actually. Spanning four decades in the world of advertising and the life of one of its star players, A Big Life oozes with juicy details and insider revelations.

After an inspiring stint as one of the infamous Bill Bernbach's protégés, Lawrence really began her career at Jack Tinker & Partners, revolutionizing the images of such brands as Alka-Seltzer and Braniff Airways. But when denied the title of president, Lawrence "let loose the bear," as she puts it, and with the creative team of Stewart Greene and Dick Rich, set up shop as Wells Rich Greene. Over the course of the next quarter century, Lawrence and her cast of characters "made theatre out of the advertising business," giving brands like Benson & Hedges, American Motors, TWA, Midas, and Procter & Gamble's Gleem toothpaste their turn on the stage of stardom. While Lawrence's story is less about her agency's creative work and more about her impressions of and interactions with virtually everyone who was anyone in the advertising world of the '70s and '80s, she does include glimpses into her own childhood, life as a mother, and battles with cancer, adding a touch of reality to an otherwise glittering world. Some readers may feel Lawrence's opinion of her own beauty and charm plays too prominent a role in her reminiscing, but she was, after all, an adventurous queen bee in a glamorous world. Her chatty style of writing, and her ebullient enthusiasm for all she has experienced and accomplished, make this book read more like a novel than a memoir. It's an entertaining, fast-paced tale of a big star's big life. --S. Ketchum

From Publishers Weekly
When an autobiography's first sentence pays tribute to a memory of little black dance dresses that showed off the author's Norwegian legs, you know you're in for something grand. Lawrence doesn't disappoint, with this memoir about her rise in the advertising world of the 1960s, when a Volkswagen ad that cried "Think Small" was considered revolutionary. She writes first about working with the legendary Bill Bernbach at his agency, where she crafted well-regarded, theatrical Betty Crocker ads to sell the first instant casserole mixes, then describes starting her own agency with her mother as receptionist. One of the visionaries of 20th-century advertising, Lawrence was also a woman in a man's business world, and a youngster pitching bold ideas to fusty older corporate types. But her robust approach got noticed, and taglines like "I can't believe I ate the whole thing," "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz: oh, what a relief it is!" and especially "I love New York" still loom large in the public's memory. Her candor in describing her agency's failures and her own problems during the heady, mostly successful run of the company give the book weight and humanity, imparting some cautionary tales for those in the biz. However, it's Lawrence's generally upbeat tone that lingers past the last page. She delivers a beguiling look inside 30 years of the zippy, fast-moving ad culture and does so with the kind of witty, charming self-deprecation often seen in the ads she created. Photos.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Knopf (May 7, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375409122
• ISBN-13: 978-0375409127
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #883,794 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Big Life in her own mind, August 28, 2002

By A Customer

Mary Wells Lawrence protests that she cannot understand why Gloria Steinem said she "Uncle Tommed it to the top." All you have to do is read this book to understand exactly what she meant. Mary portrays herself as unbelievably shallow, egotistical, and testosterone driven and has the nerve to pass judgement on any women who see any alternative to a big empty shallow life like her own. She is so fascinated with her own little corner of the world and her psuedo celebrity friends she spends all her time recounting anecdotes about them and never gives us any synthesis of her experiences or any attempt to relate it to the rest of the world.

The only people that I imagine would find this book useful are those who want gossip on the history of the advertising business (or those that are thinking of getting in to see what they're about to encounter). Readers who are interested in life as a CEO from a woman's perspective or how successful women deal with balancing career and family (or career and any personal life whatsoever) will be sorely disappointed, as will readers interested in any deep insights about anything at all. Finally, this book is shockingly poorly written for someone who started her career writing.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Should appeal to a wide range of readers., October 22, 2004

By	C. Gilbert "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Big Life In Advertising (Paperback)

I was not expecting a lot from this book. It was recommended to me, and I picked it up in a half-hearted way. I thought it was something that I would breeze through and forget about. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised. I found it a book that I both enjoyed reading and would recommend. At least, I would recommend it with some reservations.

The good sides of the book appear in her instructive stories about the advertising business. Lawrence brings the message across very clearly that advertising is relationship driven. A successful agency must focus on relationships both with the client and with the intended audience. Lawrence gives an example of success achieved by taking that focus to its limits.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect (and one that should appeal to students of business history) is advertising reception at a time that was much less marketing saturated than we are today. She had an opportunity to be a giant with emerging technology and in an emerging field. It makes for terrific reading.

My reservation about the book has to do with the writing quality. Her tone is extremely chatty. At the beginning, I tripped over the awkwardness of the prose. The organisational principle of the book was vague. Timeframes shift without warning or explanation. Finally, while the mix of personal and business anecdotes was entertaining, there were times that it moved far too swiftly from one to another. Still, she gets points for writing this book on her own and not with a ghost writer. I have the feeling that the reader was better off with its flaws than with a more inauthentic voice.

I am not in the advertising field, and I really enjoyed the book. People interested in one of the following areas should find something here: media, advertising, entrepeneurship, women in industry, business history, or pop culture. It also has a great can-do view of the world, inspiring to anyone who needs a push towards success.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Less than Meets the Eye, October 26, 2002

By A Customer

Narcissism never had it so good. The personal pronoun is overdone even though this is an autobiography. This book lacks context in almost every instance. Years from now, many readers will remember that Mary Wells and Harding Lawrence had a grand time living on the French Riviera and the Caribbean. They won't have more than a clue how the couple worked together on Braniff (which went bankrupt), or how Mary came to claim and reclaim the Continental Airlines account (bankrupt a couple of times) or felt about a client with little chances for long-term success, American Motors (bought-out before it could go bankrupt). (See the pattern here?) The writing is sometimes a twisted jumble -- one can almost envision the author speaking into a tape recorder as she "wrote" this book. If you're inclined to get this volume, a used paperback will suffice.