My First Job In Advertising.

By Jacqueline Millstein

As professional women of a certain age, we all have stories about our lives that reflect how the world has changed in the last half century. We lived through Vietnam, Woodstock, Watergate and Women’s Lib. This is my story about being hired as a Madison Avenue ad agency’s first female art director.

Two weeks after graduating from Parsons School of Design in 1976, I landed a job on Madison Avenue at a testosterone-laden agency with a roster of clients that were primarily automotive and tobacco. The only women who worked there other than me were secretaries and receptionists. They gave me a corner space in the bull pen and the title of Junior Art Director. The room was filled with drafting tables, cutting boards and production men chain smoking cigarettes. These were the men who lettered, drew illustrations, selected typefaces and created finished layouts and storyboards for art directors to present to clients. Every inch of wall space was devoted to a different month. Allow me to clarify. A different Playboy centerfold of the month. Wherever I looked, giant breasts looked back at me. When I objected to the scenery, I was told to man up.

I was put in charge of the storeroom – keeping it neat and making sure that we didn’t run low on anything the bullpen needed. One day I discovered a large wicker basket filled with mailing tubes. Back then, well-known photographers and illustrators would have their reps troll the halls of agencies, handing out samples in the form of posters. There were dozens of them that apparently no one wanted. One afternoon I asked my boss if I could tidy up the bullpen during lunch. He was delighted, and he and all the other production guys left for a nice, long, martini lunch, thinking it was a good decision to bring in a girl after all. When they got back, the naked girls were gone, replaced with posters by the most famous commercial photographers and illustrators of the era. As for the ladies? I neatly rolled them up, placed each one in her own mailing tube, and gently placed them in the wicker basket in the storeroom. My boss just smiled, shook his head and made a comment under his breath that he should have seen it coming. That was the last time anyone teased me about anything.

In 2009, I became Chief Creative Officer/Creative Director and co-owner of RITTA, a boutique ad agency in Paramus, NJ. Sister Gucci, shot by Tony Mandarino, is now a collector’s item. It hung framed in my office until I retired in 2024.

I’d love to hear stories from the Lustre community. Care to share?