Smucker's ad executive dies at 80

Smucker's ad executive dies at 80

By LARRY McSHANE, Associated Press Writer Fri Jul 6, 5:00 PM ET
NEW YORK - Advertising executive, author and columnist Lois Wyse, who coined the memorable catchphrase "With a name like Smucker's, it has to be good," died Friday after a long struggle with stomach cancer, her family said. She was 80.

Wyse died in her Manhattan home shortly after midnight and 18 months after her cancer diagnosis, said her son-in-law, Henry Goldman. During her lengthy career in advertising, Wyse raised the glass ceiling for other working women while counseling clients from American Express to Revlon to one-time Cleveland Mayor Carl Stokes.

She created the advertising slogan that propelled Smucker's from a small Orrville, Ohio, jam and jelly business into an international brand. Her suggestion that a small chain of stores try a new name — Bed, Bath & Beyond — helped expand that business into a retail heavyweight.

Wyse launched her career as a teenage reporter with The Cleveland News and The Cleveland Press, becoming a columnist age 17. She worked with photographer Alfred Eisenstadt for a Life magazine piece when just 18, and later wrote for Vogue and Cosmopolitan.

Wyse, after co-founding the Cleveland-based Wyse Advertising with her first husband in 1951, came up with the Smucker's campaign while working as her company's creative director. She advised Stokes during his 1967 run, when he became the first black mayor elected in a major American city.

Wyse, who later divorced Marc Wyse, opened her advertising company's New York office in 1966.

As a writer, Wyse penned "The Way We Are" — a column featured on the last page of Good Housekeeping magazine for 13 years, where she recounted tales of her life and family. She also wrote more than 60 books, including the 1989 best-seller "Funny, You Don't Look Like a Grandmother."

Wyse was survived by her daughter, Katherine, and son-in-law Henry Goldman; son Robert and daughter-in-law Denise Wyse; stepson Zev Guber and wife Heidi; and eight grandchildren. Her second husband, theater producer Lee Guber, died in 1988.

A memorial service for Wyse was set for July 16 at Congregation Emanu-El on Manhattan's East Side.