Jane Maas was born Jane Ann Brown in Jersey City, New Jersey on March 14, 1932. She received a bachelor's degree in English from Bucknell University and a master's degree in English literature from Cornell University. Before working in advertising, she wrote for television.
She became a trailblazer in the advertising industry of the 1960s and 1970s. She began her career in 1964 at Ogilvy & Mather, where she rose from junior copywriter to vice president, but was usually confined to handling household brands pitched mainly to women. She worked at Wells Rich Greene from 1976 to 1981, where as senior vice president Maas headed the I Love New York campaign. She became the president of Muller Jordan Weiss and the president of Earle Palmer Brown. She, Kenneth Roman, and Martin Nisenholtz wrote How to Advertise, which became an industry classic. Advertising Age named Maas one of the 100 Most Influential Women in Advertising.
She wrote two memoirs entitled Adventures of an Advertising Woman and Mad Women: The Other Side of Life on Madison Avenue in the '60s and Beyond. She also wrote two books with her husband Michael Maas entitled Christmas in Wales: A Homecoming and The Christmas Angel. She died from complications of lung cancer on November 16, 2018 at the age of 86.
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