Maxwell "Mac" Dane (June 7, 1906 – August 8, 2004) was an American

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

executive and co-founder of the

Doyle Dane Bernbach DDB Worldwide Communications Group LLC, known internationally as DDB, is a worldwide marketing communications network. It is owned by Omnicom Group, one of the world's largest advertising holding companies. The international advertising networks ...

agency, known as DDB, that was established in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

in 1949. For advertising against

U.S. presidential The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United St ...

candidate

Barry Goldwater Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and United States Air Force officer who was a five-term U.S. Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the United States Republican Party, Republ ...

in 1964, he became one of the original twenty people mentioned on

Nixon's Enemies List "Nixon's Enemies List" is the informal name of what started as a list of President of the United States Richard Nixon's major political opponents compiled by Charles Colson, written by George T. Bell (assistant to Colson, special counsel to the ...

Biography

Born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

familyInterview with: Maxwell Dane at - DDB in the '60s
retrieved June 2, 2017 in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state lin ...

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

. He spoke Yiddish in his home. Dane began his advertising career in his mid-teens, working as a secretary to the manager of advertising at

Stern Brothers Stern's (originally Stern Brothers) was a regional department store chain serving the U.S. states of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The chain was in business for more than 130 years. In 2001, Stern's parent company Federated Department ...

, and later, as

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and th ...

promotion manager at the ''

New York Evening Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a Conservatism in the United States, conservative daily newspaper, daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip ...

''. Subsequently, he worked as advertising and promotion manager at '' Look magazine'', where he met James "Ned" Doyle. In 1941, Dane began work as advertising promotion manager for the New York

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transm ...

station, WMCA. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, he arranged for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' to air news bulletins at the top of each hour, an innovative idea for radio at the time. In 1944, Dane opened a small advertising agency bearing his name, ''Maxwell Dane, Inc.'' His short-lived agency was closed in 1949 when Dane co-founded

(DDB) with James Doyle, and Doyle's friend,

William Bernbach William Bernbach (August 13, 1911 – October 2, 1982) was an American advertising creative director. He was one of the three founders in 1949 of the international advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB). He directed many of the firm's breakt ...

. When DDB, then considered a firm handling predominantly

Democratic Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

candidates during political campaigns, produced the 1964

television commercial A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

''Daisy'' in support of Lyndon Johnson's Presidential campaign, Dane was added to

with the remark:

The top Democratic advertising firm—they destroyed Goldwater in 1964. They should be hit hard starting with Dane.

At DDB, Dane oversaw finance and

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...

functions, later becoming the chairman of the executive committee, secretary, and treasurer of the corporation. He retired from DDB in 1971. His obituary noted, that "after a brief illness, Dane died in his New York home on August 8, 2004. Dane is survived by his wife Esther, his son Henry Dane, four grandchildren; Abraham, Michael, Marion and Samuel, and seven great grandchildren."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dane, Maxwell 1906 births 2004 deaths Businesspeople from Cincinnati American advertising executives Nixon's Enemies List 20th-century American Jews Businesspeople from New York City