Phyllis K. Robinson“The Original Mad Woman”

(1921-2010)

After graduating from Barnard in 1942 and working a series of copywriting jobs, she landed at Grey Advertising, where copy chief Bill Bernbach took her under his wing, and he recruited her in 1949 to run the copy department of his then-upstart firm Doyle Dane Bernbach.

Robinson was the first woman to run a copy department, working with art directors like Bob Gage and Helmut Krone and nurturing talented young writers like Mary Wells.

Former Esquire art director George Lois, who worked for Robinson in 1959 and 1960 (and appears with her in the 2009 ad documentary Art and Copy ), declares her “the first great modern advertising writer.”

"There were women writers before Phyllis, but they wrote about beauty products," he said. "At DDB, Phyllis had the authority to work on whatever the hell she wanted to, baby”

her biggest triumph was arguably for Polaroid, as she dispelled the notion that instant cameras were gimmicky. “She made everything that Polaroid did famous,” says her friend Ted Voss, Polaroid's former vice-president of worldwide marketing.

In her decades of mastering the balancing act of trailblazer and a devoted family woman, it appears she left out nothing.

Els seus inicis• Llicenciada en Sociologia i Belles Arts a Bernard College.

• Treballà fent estadístiques pel govern d’USA durant la Segona Guerra Mundial.

La seva trajectòria en la publicitat• Copy junior a la companyia Methodist Publishing.

• Periodista de moda per a la revista Women’s Wear Daily a Miami.

• 1945 Directora executiva de la “Tobe Fashion Report”.

• 1946 Primer treball com a copywriter a l’agència Bresnick & Solomont.

• 1947 Contractada per l’agència Grey Advertising treballant en promocions de moda. Treballa amb William Bernbach.

• El 1949 Bernbach y Ned Doyle deixen Grey per crear una nova agència juntament amb Mac Dane, la coneguda Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB).

•Bernbach és contractada per la DDB i es converteix en la directora del departament de Copy.

La seva importància en la publicitat1. Primera dona directora de Copy en la història de la publicitat d’USA.

2. Per primera vegada Copy i Art Directors treballen conjuntament a DDB.

3. Anuncis amb un to intel · ligent, a diferència de la grandiloqüència, el sentimentalisme i la hipèrbole prevalent a Madison Avenue.

4. Va redactar tot tipus d’anuncis, d’entre els quals destaquen les seves campanyes per Polaroid, pa Levy’s i per als grans magatzems Orbach’s.

"There were women writers before Phyllis, but they wrote about beauty products," he said. "At DDB, Phyllis had the authority to work on whatever the hell she wanted to, baby."

Bibliografia

REINHARD, Keith. “Thank you, Phyllis Robinson”, lloc web “DDB Creativity Blog”, entrada 11 de Gener de 2011.URL: http://www.ddb.com/ddblogs/creativity/thank-you-phyllis-robinson.html

ADVERTISING AGE. “Robinson, Phyillis K. (1921-)”, lloc web “Advertising Age”, entrada 15 Septembre de 2003.URL:http://adage.com/article/adage-encyclopedia/robinson-phyllis-k-1921/98857/

FOX, S. (1997).The mirror makers: A history of American advertising & its creators. New York: Illini Books.

HELLER, S - PETTIT,E. Graphic design time line: a century of design milestones. New York: Allworth Press.

Art & Copy. Doug Pray. 2009