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Neil Drossman, who introduced a cheeky wit and a tireless work ethic to the award-winning print ads and tv commercials he wrote for shoppers like Meow Combine cat meals, Instructor’s Scotch whisky and 1-800-Flowers, died on Nov. 25 within the Bronx. He was 83.
His son, Edward, mentioned he died of prostate most cancers in a hospital.
From the late Sixties till this yr, Mr. Drossman was a copywriter and an government at a number of companies, some run by the promoting guru Jerry Della Femina and a few he helped run himself.
“He was one of many smartest individuals I do know, very low key, and he had a ardour,” Mr. Della Femina, who employed Mr. Drossman at Della Femina, Travisano & Companions within the early Seventies, mentioned in a telephone interview. “He actually wished to win.”
Some of the enduring traces Mr. Drossman wrote was for Meow Combine: “Tastes so good, cats ask for it by title.” That got here on the finish of commercials during which cats appeared to sing (“Meow meow meow meow/Meow meow meow meow”) for his or her rooster and seafood.
For Stick Ups, small deodorizing disks made by Air Wick that could possibly be glued wherever in the home, he wrote commercials that had the punchline “This can be a good place for a Stick Up.”
For a 1-800-Flowers print advert, Mr. Drossman wrote: “There are 800 causes for sending flowers. Guilt is 700 of them.”
And for Chemical Financial institution, to ship the message that every of its branches served its neighborhood in a different way, he wrote, “Flatbush ain’t Flushing.” The road that adopted — “Flatbush is the ghost of Ebbets Subject and Jackie Robinson stealing house” — was private: It harked again to his upbringing in Brooklyn, his love for the Dodgers and his anger at their transfer to Los Angeles when he was a youngster.
Paul Kruger, a artistic director and companion at Della Femina Promoting, the place Mr. Drossman labored till not too long ago, described him as indefatigable.
“He was an thought machine,” Mr. Kruger mentioned. “He would spit out line after line after line and give you new stuff. He’d say, ‘Yet another thought, yet another thought.’”
In 1973 and 1974, Mr. Drossman ghostwrote full-page testimonials for Instructor’s Scotch within the voices of celebrities like Groucho Marx, George Burns and Mel Brooks. The Brooks advert was written as an interview with Mr. Brooks’s character the two,000 12 months Outdated Man.
“Sir, when was Scotch found?”
“It was through the Ice Age. We had so many tons of ice, we didn’t know what to do. So we made drinks, all types of drinks.”
The Instructor’s marketing campaign gained Della Femina, Travisano a Clio Award for artistic excellence in promoting. It additionally earned Mr. Drossman a writing award from what’s now the One Membership for Creativity.
Mr. Drossman and his colleagues earned Clio Awards in 1980 for 3 campaigns — for Air Wick Stick Ups, Meow Combine and the carpet retailer Einstein Moomjy. His Emery Air Freight advertisements (“It’s 10 o’clock. Are you aware the place your bundle is?”) gained an award from the One Membership in 1978.
Neil Arthur Drossman was born on Feb. 26, 1940, in Brooklyn. His father, Edward, owned a jewellery retailer. His mom, Anne (Rosenberg) Drossman, labored on the retailer and took over after her husband died in 1971.
After graduating from Alfred College in upstate New York with a bachelor’s diploma in English in 1961, Mr. Drossman labored at CBS Information earlier than starting his promoting profession. Among the many companies he labored for had been Daniel & Charles, Delehanty Kurnit & Geller and Kurtz, Kambanis & Symon.
Mr. Della Femina recalled his response to seeing advertisements Mr. Drossman had written for different companies. “You have a look at an advert and also you say, ‘I want I had performed that,’” he mentioned. “His portfolio was filled with advertisements like that.”
After working at Della Femina, Travisano and a subsidiary, Drossman Yustein Clowes, for a few dozen years, Mr. Drossman fashioned Drossman Lehmann Marino Reveley in 1983. In 1994, he joined Ryan & Companions as an fairness companion, and the company turned Ryan Drossman & Companions. In 2002, he and the artwork director Bob Needleman began Needleman Drossman & Companions, which turned a division of Della Femina Promoting.
When Reader’s Digest employed Needleman Drossman in 2003 to refresh its picture, Mr. Drossman pushed that venerable publication into barely risqué territory. One of many advertisements within the marketing campaign confirmed a lady in a bathrobe holding a replica of the journal and looking out into the digicam.
“If we received any nearer to our readers,” the headline learn, “we’d have to make use of safety.”
Mr. Drossman, then the chairman and co-creative director of his company, mentioned the aim of the marketing campaign was “to make individuals assume twice concerning the Digest.”
Along with his son, he’s survived by his spouse, Ellen (Danor) Drossman; his daughter, Jill Drossman; his sister, Phyllis Bulhack; and three grandchildren. He lived in Manhattan.
Not all of Mr. Drossman’s copywriting was humorous. In 2008, in a industrial extolling Hackensack College Medical Middle in New Jersey for rating amongst America’s 50 greatest hospitals, a younger boy was proven enjoying alone with a glove and a baseball.
“If each hospital carried out that effectively,” the narrator says, “a whole bunch of 1000’s of lives could be saved. Who is aware of, possibly Finn wouldn’t be alone now. Possibly he’d be having a catch together with his grandfather.”
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