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Vol. IUpdated November 20261,425 termsCambridge and Toronto

The Madison Avenue Field GuideA field guide to marketing & advertising, by Brandon Mina

LegendsMary Wells Lawrence

Founder and copywriter · 1928–2024

Mary Wells Lawrence

The copywriter who repainted an airline, founded her own agency at 37 and became the first woman to run an NYSE-listed company.

By Brandon MinaCEO, BrandPilot AIUpdated November 2026

Mid-century gouache-and-ink portrait illustration of Mary Wells Lawrence, in the style of a 1960s magazine ad
Mary Wells Lawrence. An illustration, not a photograph.

What Mary proved

  1. A brand can be redesigned top to bottom: Braniff's "End of the Plain Plane" changed the planes, the uniforms and the airline's fortunes.
  2. Television advertising can be theatre, and funny.
  3. A woman could build and lead one of the biggest agencies on Madison Avenue.

I should have put some of the creative talent I had into cloning myself.

Mary Wells Lawrence · On the end of Wells Rich Greene, Forbes, 2002 · Source

Key campaigns

  • Braniff: "The End of the Plain Plane" (at Jack Tinker & Partners)
  • Alka-Seltzer: "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz"
  • I Love New York

The agency

Terms from the work

Each one opens its glossary entry.

Sources

The portrait is an illustration made for this guide, not a photograph.