Janet L. Wolff

Janet L. Wolff (February 21, 1920–July 29, 2014) was an American advertising executive who was a key figure at J. Walter Thompson Co. (JWT) and William Esty Co.

Early life

Wollf was born Janet Loeb^[1] on February 21, 1920, in San Francisco. She attended Castilleja School before moving to New York City as a teenager, where she attended Finch College and Wood Tobé-Coburn School and began to study fashion and marketing. She moved with her mother to Paris in the mid-1930s and attended The Sorbonne. After returning to New York before World War II, she worked for Macy’s, and while there entered a New York Sun Father’s Day card competition. Her entry led to many job offers in advertising.^[2]

Career

Woolf was the youngest vice president at JWT^[3] and led many clients into television advertising. After 15 years at JWT, she left for William Esty Co. At the two companies she led a number of successful campaigns, including Datsun's "We are Driven"; Irish Spring's "The manly soap that women like, too"; Nabisco's "American Cookie Jar"; Noxzema Shave Cream's "Take it off, take it all off" and Vaseline Intensive Care's "dry leaf demonstration."^[3]

Wolff was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame in 1998.^[4][3]

Wolff's influential 1958 book What Makes Women Buy^[5] led to a number of other books, including co-authoring the Lifetrends series.^[2] She authored eight books in all.^[3]

Family and later life

In 1945^[2] or 1946^[1] she married Dr. James Wolff, a pioneer in pediatric hematology and oncology.^[1]

Wolff died in Pompano Beach, Florida in 2014.^[2] Her husband predeceased her in 2012. She was survived by four children and ten grandchildren.^[2]

References