When it comes to raking in firsts, Helen is a boss. As the first female copywriter, she blazed a path wide enough for those coming behind. You know that time when women were not allowed to vote? Her copy writing career started then. Must have been hell of a fight getting her thoughts heard right?
I imagine she must have been regarded (at first) at work with as much affection as you have for a stack of bills. But looking at her profile today, she did a hell of a great job getting her self out there. So great in fact that AdAge has her as #14 on the list of 100 advertising people of the 20th century.
Helen was one of those bold enough to introduce sexual themes in magazine ads in those days. In case you have no idea, the “hot look” of then is the “modest look” now. A man, then, could get an apoplexy from glimpsing a lady’s shank.

Apart from this she introduced the use of celebrities in adverts, leveraging on the reach of their audience to the advantage of the brands she advertised for. Power of testimonials was also one of her innovative styles that she used in getting the interest of target audiences. Because of these, she was crowned master of conversion writing.
Her copy writing game is off the scale, pushing boundaries and grinding accepted rules to dust. As long as the copy is believable and not fairy tale spun string of words, she’s for it. Simply put, she’s a “copy bender”, one of her kind.
Remember the Mad Men era? Good. There were the Mad Women and Helen is a lead of the pack. She kick-started agency initiatives that supported women, growing to wield huge creative influence at the time.
Currently, she has an international scholarship in her name. If that’s not a testament for you Helen is a legend, you can read this article again.
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