Jerry Della Femina is an Americanadvertising executive and restaurateur. Starting from a poor Italian background in Brooklyn, he eventually became chairman of Della Femina Travisano & Partners, an agency which he founded with Ron Travisano in the 1960s. Over the next two decades they grew the company into a major advertising house that was billing $250 million per year and had 300 employees and offices in both New York and Los Angeles. Della Femina is known for his larger-than-life personality and colorful language, and was referred to as a "'Madman' of Madison Avenue". In 1970, he wrote a book about the advertising industry, humorously titled, From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor: Front-Line Dispatches from the Advertising War. The book became a best-seller, described by The Guardian as "one of the defining books about advertising", and eventually inspired the television seriesMad Men.
Biography
Della Femina was born into a working-class family in Coney Island, Brooklyn. His father, Michael, was a composing room employee for The New York Times. Della Femina graduated from Lafayette High School and attended one year of night school at Brooklyn College. In 1952, at age 16, he worked as a delivery boy for the Ruthruff and Ryan advertising agency. He also worked at The New York Times as a messenger boy, dropping off proofs at advertising agencies. He tried unsuccessfully in 1954 to get into advertising himself and was repeatedly rejected until in 1961, when he landed a job as a copyeditor at Daniel & Charles, then worked through multiple other agencies. He worked for two and a half years at Delehanty, Kurnit & Geller, and then became a creative supervisor at Ted Bates Advertising.
Della Femina Travisano & Partners
In 1967, he started his own agency, Della Femina Travisano & Partners, founding it with Ron Travisano, an advertising supervisor he had met while working as a copyeditor at Delehanty, Kurnit & Geller. Della Femina owned one-third, Travisano owned one-third, and the rest was distributed among two other partners whom they had known from DKG and had followed them to Ted Bates Advertising. Della Femina was chairman, and Travisano was vice-chairman and co-director of creative services. Their first account was for Squire, a company that made hairpieces, and they came up with an ad, "Are you still combing your memories?" In 1970, they won their first major account, for Blue Nun Wine, and came up with a campaign that used the talents of comics Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. The agency was also known for its work on Isuzu, Beck's Beer, Chemical Bank, Dow Brands, and Pan Am. Their most famous campaign was the Meow Mix Theme, conceived by Ron Travisano and composed by David Lucas of Lucas/McFaul, which featured an apparent singing cat. In 1981, they won the account for the New York Mets, marking the first time a Major League Baseball team had hired an ad agency. By 1985, when Travisano sold his shares and left the agency, they had around 300 employees in New York and Los Angeles were still privately held and were billing approximately $250 million annually.
Later agencies
Della Femina sold the agency in 1986 to a British group, WCRS, for a reported $30 million USD, though he continued working at the company. WCRS was then sold to a French ad agency group, Eurocom. Della Femina was not happy with the loss of control, left in June 1992, and started a new agency, Jerry, Inc., in December of that year. Accounts included the New York Mets, Newsweek, Marvel Comics, and Financial Security Assurance. He merged it in May 1994 with the New York office of Ketchum Advertising, forming Jerry & Ketchum, with new clients including North Shore University Hospital. The name later changed to Della Femina/Jeary and Partners.
Personality
A self-styled "publicity slut", Della Femina made colorful comments throughout his career that made headlines. His book From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor was a best-seller. The title refers to a tongue-in cheek slogan proposed for the client Panasonic during a brainstorming session. USA Today described him as "the most colorful creative guy in an industry full of colorful creative guys".
Restaurateur
He ran a restaurant, Della Femina, in East Hampton, until he sold it in early 2011, because, "I’m just not ready to have my wealth redistributed. I’m not ready to pay more tax money than the next guy because I provide jobs and because I work a 60-hour week and I earn more than $250,000 a year. So why am I dropping out? Read a brilliant book by Ayn Rand called Atlas Shrugged, and you’ll know."
He received honorary doctorates from the University of Missouri in 1983 and from Long Island University in 1989. Advertising Age named him one of the "100 most influential advertising people of the century".
Personal life
Della Femina has been married to journalist and television hostJudy Licht since 1983. They met in 1981 when she interviewed him for Channel 5. They have two children, now adults. Della Femina also has three grown children by a previous marriage: Donna, Michael, and Jodi. Della Femina and his wife reside in New York City, East Hampton, New York, and West Palm Beach, Florida.
