Something About Mary

The 18 months Mary Wells Lawrence spent writing A Big Life in Advertising was a bittersweet period for the founder of one of advertising's greatest creative shops. There was much to reflect upon in a life of glorious self-invention, a journey that took her from a Depression-era childhood in Youngstown, Ohio, to the chief executive's role at Wells Rich Greene, the first New York Stock Exchange company run by a woman. Along the way she held her own in close working relationships with powerful clients, while creating a sumptuous life in homes in Acapulco, Cap-Ferrat in the south of France and Mustique.

Now 73, Wells Lawrence sifted through those Big Life memories in a room next to her longtime partner during those golden times, husband Harding Law rence, who was struggling with terminal pancreatic cancer. He lost that battle in January, and Wells Lawrence, drawing on her husband's encouragement to move on without him, is resolute about forging a new chapter in a life with all the rich turns of a jet-setting novel.

Wells Lawrence set up her agency in 1967, attracting clients such as TWA, Alka-Seltzer, Benson & Hedges, Philip Morris, Procter & Gamble and American Motors. She had already grabbed attention, while still at Jack Tinker & Partners, with her audacious marketing ideas for Braniff airlines: She asked Emilio Pucci to redesign the stewardesses' outfits and had the fleet painted in high-octane colors. Known for her stylish flair, she tapped society decorators like Billy Baldwin to tailor her agency offices, and she developed close friendships with personalities like Hubert de Given chy. By 1968, at age 40, she became the youngest person inducted into the Copywriter's Hall of Fame, and by 1969 she was earning $225,000 a year—more than David Ogilvy, who was running a worldwide network—making Wells Lawrence one of the best-known, highest-paid women in business. She took WRG public in 1968 and then private again within a decade after she became uncomfortable with the scrutiny and financial pressures accompanying public ownership. Paris-based BDDP Group acquired the agency in 1991.

She sat down with Adweek during a recent trip to Manhattan. Seated in the Christian Dior suite at the St. Regis Hotel, with its carved crown moldings, crystal chandeliers and spring bouquets, Wells Law rence conjured up a more glamorous era in advertising.

Adweek: Why did you write the book?

Wells Lawrence: I felt incredibly frustrated that in the last two or three years of Wells Rich Greene and its collapse, the names mentioned in the press were all names of strangers. It would have left you with the idea that it was an agency run by people who didn't know what they were doing there and had no connection with its culture, history or why it was successful. The real WRG was