Janet L. Wolff

Wolff was born 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.[1]

Wolff was the youngest vice president at JWT[2] 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."[2]

Wolff was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame in 1998.[3][2]

Wolff's influential 1958 book What Makes Women Buy[4] led to a number of other books, including co-authoring the Lifetrends series.[1] She authored eight books in all.[2]

In 1945[1] or 1946[5] she married Dr. James Wolff, a pioneer in pediatric hematology and oncology.[5]

Wolff died in Pompano Beach, Florida in 2014.[1] Her husband predeceased her in 2012. She was survived by four children and ten grandchildren.[1]