Creative Chutzpah: Jewish Impact on Advertising

The story of our people in the United States has largely been one of influence. From science, to law, to Hollywood, we’ve played an impressively big part for being such a small portion of the population. Heck, even 36% of all American Nobel Prize winners have been Jewish! All of this amidst facing anti-semetism in every generation. Though Jewish influence can be seen in numerous fields of work, our impact on the advertising and marketing industry might just be bigger than you think.

Let’s take a step back to 1898. As businesses boomed and spending flourished, a young Alfred Lasker of Lord & Thomas Advertising realized that more creative and emotionally-driven advertisements would be far more effective in connecting with consumers than those focused solely on a given product or service. Lasker called this type of thinking “salesmanship in print,” which laid the foundation for the creative advertising that we all know and love today. Over the next thirty years, Lord & Thomas would grow to become the biggest agency in the country, and Lasker would become the sole owner of the firm. In 1942, Lord & Thomas became known as FCB, which remains one of the largest agency networks in the world today. Ever proud of his Jewish identity and active in Jewish life, Lasker would later make charitable contributions to Hebrew Union College and the Associated Jewish Charities of Chicago. Lasker, otherwise known as “the father of modern advertising,” may have paved the way for Jewish influence in the field, but things didn’t stop there.

Our industry today often feels like a carnival of agencies with way-too-similar acronyms. But did you know that the founders behind many of those acronyms were Jewish? One of the most well-known of those names would be that of Bill Bernbach – one of the founders of DDB. Credited as the first Creative Director to pair an Art Director and a Copywriter into two-person teams, Bernbach’s influence can be felt in agency structures all over the world today. One of DDB’s other founders, Maxwell Dane, was also Jewish. So was Lawrence Valstein, who founded Grey back in 1917 at just 18 years of age. Saatchi & Saatchi was also created by two Mizrahi immigrants, Maurice and Charles Saatchi. Lester Wunderman, David Deutsch, Daniel Edelman, and Rich Silverstein would all also be behind some of the biggest and most influential agencies in our industry that all bear their names to this day. 

Not only have Jews laid the foundation for some of the biggest agencies we know and agency structure itself, but Jewish creatives have also been the brains behind some of the most famous campaigns in history! From the above batch of names, Bill Bernbach created the famous “Think Small” campaign for the Volkswagen Beetle, and “You Don't Have to be Jewish to Love Levy's” for Levy’s Rye Bread. Coca-Cola’s iconic “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” campaign was created in part by Art Director, Harvey Gabor. And of course, Rich Silverstein was behind “Got Milk?” Though Goodby Silverstein’s most recent “Cheetos Other Hand Font” campaign is pretty darn good too. Even the Aflac Duck himself and the famous “I’m a Toys ‘R’ Us Kid” jingle was the work of copywriter, Linda Kaplan Thaler. The point is, we’ve always had a knack for this thing! Whether it’s creating catchy campaigns that are remembered for decades to come, our founding agencies that grow throughout the world, the influence of talented and uncannily driven Jewish people can be felt each and every day in our very industry. And now more than ever, it’s on us to be the next link in the chain.

So now what? We know that the advertising industry has always been largely influenced by our people. Yet here we are in 2025, feeling cornered and isolated, and desperately searching for community within the very field in which we helped to create. As antisemitism continues to spread like wildfire in the wake of 10/7, the story of Queen Esther, which we just read a couple of months ago for Purim, comes to mind. Now more than ever, it’s on us to continue the tradition of Jewish advertising brilliance that people like Alfred Lasker and Bill Bernbach laid out before us. Even more so, let us do it while finding the courage to speak out and advocate for our community, just as Queen Esther did. Esther didn’t just stand up for the Jewish people, but she did so by showing pride in her own identity and by effectively communicating in the face of adversity. And as we are all Jewish experts in communication, there could be no better moment for us to stand up together than this one. Think of this moment right now, in our industry rooted in effective communication, as our very own “CTA.”