Don Draper and the rest of the Mad Men crew can thank Albert D. Lasker for their fame. A new biography convincingly nominates Lasker as the “father of modern advertising,” noted for creating brilliant ad campaigns selling everything from Kotex — an unknown product whose function could not be discussed — to a president, Warren G. Harding.

The Man Who Sold America (Harvard Business Review Press) by Jeffrey L. Cruikshank (PMD 51, 1986) and Arthur W. Schultz, goes a long way to reintroducing Lasker as an industry trailblazer. “Before he arrived on the scene, advertising agencies were mostly brokers of space in newspapers and magazines,” the authors tell us. “With Lasker’s prodding — and with contributions from pioneers at a handful of other agencies — the industry became a creative force and began earning substantial commissions.”

Between 1910 and 1930, Lasker and his band of superstar copywriters at Lord   Thomas invented the “salesmanship in print” business model that sustained the industry for decades to come. In short, the firm convinced clients that print ads should follow a salesman’s approach, offering the potential buyer a “reason-why” pitch. That put the creative in ad “creative,” and suddenly agencies could bill much more for their newly developed writing and marketing services.

Brands that Lasker’s agency helped make or reinvent included Goodyear, Kleenex, Palmolive, and Pepso-dent. His skill wasn’t limited to consumer goods. To help counter baseball’s 1919 Black Sox scandal, Lasker pushed for the creation of a baseball commissioner. He was also an influential philanthropist behind the success of Planned Parenthood and the American Cancer Society.

The Lasker that pops from these pages is driven, occasionally petty, a counterintuitive thinker whose ads sometimes made promises that reality couldn’t keep, such as claiming Lucky Strikes (“Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet”) improved throat health. He preferred to do business directly with chief executives and made many powerful and lasting friends as a result. His achievements came against the backdrop of lifelong bouts of depression. In 1942, Lasker unexpectedly sold the firm to three senior partners and withdrew from advertising.

At the book’s close, Cruikshank and Schultz liken their subject to the Wizard of Oz, who operated largely without notice behind a closed curtain. Thankfully, they have pulled back the drapes to reveal a rich life that profoundly shaped the American way of life in the 20th century.

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