EPAR@ ` uTEXT ` gWells, Mary Georgene1928╨businesswomanBorn in Youngstown, Ohio, on May 25, 1928, Mary Berg attended local schools and supplemented her education with dancing, music, and drama lessons. At seventeen she went to New York City and enrolled in the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater. A year later she entered the Carnegie Institute of Technology, where she remained for two years. In December 1949 she married Burt Wells, with whom she moved back to New York in 1950. (They were divorced in 1965.) After a stint as fashion advertising manager for Macy╒s department store she joined the advertising agency of McCann╨Erickson, Inc., where she was a copy group head from 1953 to 1956. In the latter year she moved to Doyle Dane Bernbach, where she became copy chief and vice-president in 1963. In 1964 she accepted the offer of a senior partnership in Jack Tinker & Partners, a prestigious agency noted for its creativity. There her own imagination and drive flourished. Working especially with copywriter Richard Rich and artist Stewart Greene, she directed the development of a series of memorably amusing and award-winning television commercials for Alka-Seltzer. With the same colleagues she developed a full campaign to revamp entirely the image of Braniff International Airlines, a campaign involving painting all the firm╒s airplanes in bright colors and dressing the stewardesses in designer uniforms. Early in 1966, rather than sign a long-term contract with Tinker, Wells left the agency and with her two coworkers established her own, Wells, Rich, Greene, Inc. They immediately captured the Braniff account; Philip Morris, Utica Club beer, La Rosa spaghetti, and others quickly followed, and within six months the new agency boasted over $30 million in billings. As chairman of the board and chief executive officer of one of Madison Avenue╒s hottest agencies, a leader in the wave of humor and wit in advertising, Mary Wells became something of a celebrity in her own right. In November 1967 she married Harding L. Lawrence, president of Braniff. In 1971 she was named advertising woman of the year by the American Advertising Federation. In 1972 she was the highest paid executive in the advertising industry, with a gross income of over $414,000. Wells, Rich, Greene, Inc., continued as a leading advertising agency, with billings in excess of $185 million in 1973. «styl ` ! ¬ 5¬ 5¬ * !I 5¬ !I û 5¬ ù !I link `
