Linda Kaplan Thaler

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Linda Kaplan Thaler
Born
Linda Kaplan

January 1951 (age 73)
EducationB.S. and M.M.A. CCNY
OccupationAdvertising
SpouseFred Thaler

Linda Kaplan Thaler (January, 1951) is an American advertiser and author.[1] She is currently the CEO & President of Kaplan Thaler Productions. As an advertiser she helped create advertising campaigns that are well known in American culture including the Aflac duck[2] and the “Yes, Yes, Yes” campaign for Clairol Herbal Essence.[3] She has authored and composed jingles, including “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up, I’m a Toys "R" Us Kid,”[4] and “Kodak Moments". She is a motivational speaker at businesses and colleges.[5]

Education and career[edit]

Born to a Jewish family[6] and raised in New York City, Kaplan Thaler graduated from The Bronx High School of Science in 1968. She studied at CCNY, earning a BS in psychology and later a Master of Music from the same institution.[7] She is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honors society.

She spent 17 years of her early career at J. Walter Thompson where she was a Senior Vice President,[8] then went to Wells Rich Greene as Executive Vice President and Executive Creative Director.[9]

She founded the Kaplan Thaler Group in 1997 and worked as the CEO and Chief Creative Office for it.[10] She later renamed the Kaplan Thaler Group to Kaplan Thaler Productions.[11] Here she created the Aflac duck and the daring “Yes, Yes, Yes” campaign for Clairol Herbal Essences. She has authored and composed jingles that are among the industry's gold standard, including “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up, I’m a Toys ‘R’ Us Kid,” and “Kodak Moments.”[11]

She has also worked on several political campaigns, including presidential runs for Bill Clinton and Al Gore in 1992[12] and Hillary Clinton in 2008,[13] as well as Bill Bradley in 2000.[14]

Kaplan Thaler served as chairman of Publicis New York until 2016.[10]

She is married to composer Fred Thaler.[15]

Writing[edit]

Kaplan Thaler has co-authored four books with Robin Koval: Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in a Noisy World, The Power of Nice: How to Conquer the Business World with Kindness', The Power of Small: Why Little Things Make All the Difference and Grit to Great: How Perseverance, Passion and Pluck Take You from Ordinary to Extraordinary.

Television[edit]

Kaplan Thaler has appeared on The Apprentice,[16] Good Morning America, TODAY,[17] CNN[18] and Fox News.[19] She hosted the Oxygen television series, “Making It Big”[16] and was a judge on the Mark Burnett reality series, “Jingles."[20]

Achievements[edit]

In 2015, Kaplan Thaler was inducted into the American Advertising Hall of Fame.[21] She is also the recipient of the 2016 Clio Lifetime Achievement Award.[22]

Other awards include the New York Women in Communications Matrix Award,[citation needed] the Advertising Woman of the Year Award from Advertising Women of New York,[citation needed] the UJA's Mac Dane Humanitarian Award,[citation needed] the Women's Leadership Exchange's Compass Award[citation needed] and the Girl Scout's Woman of Distinction Award.[citation needed] Of her 13 Clio Awards, two were for Best Original Music and Lyrics.[citation needed] She was also the first woman in advertising to receive the New York Women in Film and Television's Muse Award.[23] In 2010/2011, Kaplan Thaler served as the New York Women in Communications'[24] President. She currently sits on the Advisory Council for The Colin Powell Center[25] at CCNY and is a member of the advisory board for the Branding and Integrated Communications master's degree program at CCNY.[citation needed]

Publications[edit]

  • Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in a Noisy World. Random House. 2003.
  • The Power of Nice: How to Conquer the Business World with Kindness. Random House. 2006.
  • The Power of Small: Why Little Things Make All the Difference. Doubleday. 2009.
  • Grit to Great: How Perseverance Passion and Pluck Take You from Ordinary to Extraordinary. Random House. 2015.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Linda Kaplan Thaler | HuffPost". www.huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  2. ^ "How I Did It: Aflac's CEO Explains How He Fell for the Duck". Harvard Business Review. 2010-01-01. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  3. ^ "Herbal Essences takes a cold shower". Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  4. ^ Bruno, Ken. "Best-Ever Advertising Jingles". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  5. ^ "Grit to Great: Linda Kaplan Thaler". Yale School of Management. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  6. ^ "Modern Jewish History: Advertising". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
  7. ^ "The City College Alumni Association - Kaplan". www.ccnyalumni.org. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  8. ^ "Linda Kaplan Thaler". Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  9. ^ Elliott, Stuart (1995-02-10). "THE MEDIA BUSINESS: Advertising; Seeking stability, Wells Rich Greene BDDP sets up a satellite shop". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  10. ^ a b "Longtime CEO Linda Kaplan Thaler Leaves Publicis New York". Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  11. ^ a b "Kaplan Thaler Productions | LinkedIn". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
  12. ^ Balz, Dan (1992-07-04). "NEW CLINTON AD TEAM COMBINES POLITICAL, COMMERCIAL VETERANS". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  13. ^ Thaler, Linda Kaplan (2008-07-09). "The "But" Factor". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  14. ^ "The Ad Campaign: A Bradley Montage, With Testimonials". partners.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  15. ^ Stein, Lindsay (February 10, 2016). "Longtime CEO Linda Kaplan Thaler Leaves Publicis New York". AdAge. She said in the note that she will expand her career as a motivational speaker and open a production company with her "award-winning composer husband, Fred Thaler
  16. ^ a b "AD AGENCY CHIEF GETS ROLE IN TV REALITY SHOW". Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  17. ^ "How to succeed in business by being ?". TODAY.com. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  18. ^ "CNN Transcript - Early Edition: Election 2000: Advertising Veteran Linda Kaplan Thaler Discusses Latest Gore, Bush TV Spots - October 23, 2000". www.cnn.com. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  19. ^ "10 Tips to Help You Go From Grit to Great". Fox News. 2016-05-04. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  20. ^ "Julie Roehm, Linda Kaplan Thaler to star in CBS's "Jingles" | Radio & Television Business Report". www.rbr.com. 16 July 2008. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  21. ^ "Linda Kaplan Thaler Inducted into Advertising Hall of Fame | LBBOnline". Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  22. ^ "2016 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient: Linda Kaplan Thaler". Clios. 2016-09-01. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  23. ^ "NYWIFT | Muse Awards History". Archived from the original on 2018-06-20. Retrieved 2012-04-07.
  24. ^ "Linda Kaplan Thaler | New York Women in Communications, Inc". NYWICI. Archived from the original on 2012-06-15. Retrieved 2012-04-07.
  25. ^ "The City College of New York :: Colin L. Powell Center for Leadership and Service".
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