Abstract: |
Wattenmaker Advertising evolved from a business enterprise founded by Jacob Wattenmaker (1894-1968), a Cleveland, Ohio, area
businessman and philanthropist. Wattenmaker began his career as owner of a wholesale dry goods store in Cleveland in the 1920s.
He then became merchandising manager of Bailey Co., a clothing store. In 1932 he founded his own chain of dress shops and
was later named managing director of the Cleveland Fur Institute and Executive Secretary of the Cleveland Fashion Institute.
He was a lecturer in merchandising, commerce, and public relations at several area schools, including Fenn College, Cleveland
College, and John Carroll University. Subsequently, Wattenmaker opened a public relations and merchandising counseling office
which evolved into Wattenmaker Advertising, Inc. after World War II. Wattenmaker Advertising specialized in food and real
estate campaigns. Some of its larger campaigns were for the Northern Ohio Food Terminal, the Dry Cleaners Guild, and Zinner's,
a flower shop. In 1965, Wattenmaker Advertising won the first Cleveland Advertising Club's Horace C. Treharne Medal for its
campaign for the Sandusky Distributing Co. Following Jacob Wattenmaker's death in 1968, control of the company was given to
his son, James. The collection consists of a photograph album of Cleveland Market Week of the Cleveland Fashion Institute
and photographs from Zinner's Flowers.
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