BOC week four: Jerry Della Femina, The Big Idea

Jerry Della Femina was an advertiser that was described as a street kid from Brooklyn. He and three associates opened up Della Femina, Travisano & Partners his first agency. His work in From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor TV’s and pushed him to celebrity like status. Dell Femina’s success was due in part by the fact that he was so driven, had a great sense of humor, and the love he had for advertising. Della Femina’s has such crazy stories from working in advertising where so compelling that they where the idea base behind the TV show Mad Men. Jerry lived a crazy lifestyle while in the industry in the 1960’s he would have three martinis at lunch which he considered to be a normal day this went along with the four packs of cigarettes that he smoked. Jerry is quoted in saying “I want to die at my desk,” (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/145766a2-8fb1-11df-8df0-00144feab49a.html) and he does prove this with only sleeping three to four hours a night having many books , a restaurant, and still running his advertising company just to name a few things. He learned such a hard work ethic from his parents whom his father worked three jobs and his mother worked one Jerry wanted to get out of the hard times he had growing up and this drove him to advertising. Even though Jerry has a great work ethic he would not be the first guess in doing sell well getting out of the neighborhood since he had a learning disability. His ads pushed the envelope talking about Pearl Harbor and Hitler to sell TV’s and books. He has given the advertisement world great works in which we still reference today.