Interview with Mary Lou Quinlan

Abstract

Mary Lou Quinlan is often referred to as “the Oprah of Madison Avenue.” That’s because she has introduced an innovative research technique in which she interviews women in a “talk show” format, using a microphone and moving among them to coax, stimulate, and reinforce. She is formerly the CEO of NW Ayer, the nation’s first advertising agency. She is a feminist, a person who truly values women in all their diversity, and a respected force within the advertising business. Her book, Just Ask a Woman, tells about the wisdom she has gained from interviewing over 3,000 women of all ages from around the United States. She also has founded her own business, also called Just Ask a Woman, that specializes in market research among women. Interestingly, she maintains contact with thousands of women she has interviewed, who act as a panel from whom she gets feedback on myriad issues.

In this interview, Ms. Quinlan talks with Linda Scott, a professor from the University of Illinois, about her early years as a young feminist in the 1970s, about her experiences at Avon and in advertising, about how offensive ads get through the agency and put before the client, and about the insights she has gained being in personal contact with thousands of women.

MLQ:

Was the conference good?

LS:

The conference went very well. We had about 200 women. But the main thing was that the spirit of it was really nice. It was a coming together of a bunch of people who otherwise wouldn’t have crossed paths—or spoken to each other—talking about things that were important to them but are politically charged. I think, particularly, some of the feminist academics I had invited were surprised at how much they had in common with these women in advertising and how open they were to collaborative types of efforts. It was extremely positive. The energy in the room was really good all day long. At the end of the day, a whole bunch of people stayed around and talked about what would be the next steps.

I think we’re probably going to try to do it again, hopefully in New York. It was a very big success. Maybe you can help us with it.

MLQ:

Oh, yes. There are certainly enough women in New York who are interested in this topic. I don’t know how broad your audience was, but it certainly isn’t just advertising people who are controlling the messages.

LS:

One of the things that was really interesting in this conference, and it was surprising to some, was that women at these big agencies were willing to be critical of the work, and they were willing to step up to the plate with their clients and had plenty of stories to tell about that. At the same time, we did have a situation where some women at one agency, which had produced one of those awful Super Bowl ads, pulled out at the last minute because they were afraid that ad might come up.

MLQ:

Were they really going to defend it? Which ad was it, do you know?

LS:

It was the one where the mom has the really big hips. Did you see that one? It’s pretty awful. It’s the one that upsets my students the most. The guy is having the mother of the girlfriend over for the first time. His friend on the phone tells him on the way to the door to take a good look, because the mother is what the girl will look like in 20 years. He opens the door and the mother has these huge hips.

It wasn’t even by their office, it was by another office of the same agency. But their defense of it, which I thought was very strange, was “After all, it was the clients who did the casting, so it wasn’t our fault.”

MLQ:

It starts with the idea.

LS:

Exactly.

MLQ:

Having been a...