Thursday, December 10, 2015

54 years in advertising.

Yesterday I wrote a short reflection on the anniversary of my 31st year in the business. I realized this morning, I did my math wrong.

My first "advertising" paycheck came not in 1984 as I had indicated, but in 1961, when I was just three. I was, it must be admitted, an enormously adorable child. And while I wasn't a "Gerber baby," I had what might be called "Norman Rockwell" looks.

That is, I had straight blond hair with a requisite unruly cowlick and big blue eyes. I was, in the words of my termagant mother, "a real ladykiller." Especially among the three-year-old set.

That blond hair and those blue eyes and a father in the business quickly led me to various sound stages around New York. In short order, I was starring in not one, but two commercials for a variety of Nabisco cereals.

If you look at my record of earnings provided by the Social Security administration, you'll see that I was earning about $3,000/year virtually before I could tie my shoes. $3,000 might now sound like much, but it was roughly the price of two-and-a-half Volkswagens, and so, perhaps the equivalent of nearly $60,000 today.

In other words, not bad for a kid.

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