On this week's Mad Men, one of the people who called Don Draper after his NYT ad attacking big tobacco was said to be "Emerson Foote". Who?

Emerson Foote was an ad man. He started working in the advertising industry in 1933. Five years and three firms later, Foote joined the Lord & Thomas Agency and became an Account Executive on the American Tobacco account; at that time, American Tobacco made Lucky Strikes (their buildings in Durham have recently been converted to trendy new shopping, restaurant, and office space).

Foote is part of advertising folklore. Alabama-born, he was a bank teller and a clerk before he traveled to San Francisco for his first ad job in 1931 as a researcher with a small agency. By 1938, he was in the big time. As a creative man with Albert Lasker's Lord & Thomas agency, Foote handled the American Tobacco Co. account, led the group-think that produced such slogans as "Lucky Strike Green Has Gone to War." He was one of the few who got along with irascible Cigarette Magnate George Washington Hill, as a result rose to vice president.

Mad Men's version of George Washington Hill goes by the name Lee Garner Jr..

In 1943, Foote and two other executives bought out Lord & Thomas and formed Foote, Cone & Belding. In 1948, Foote quit the American Tobacco account because he felt he couldn't do business with the man who took over American Tobacco after George Hill's death, a decision which reduced his company's billings by 25% or so.

Which is basically where Mad Men stands today - though in MadMen, the loss of American Tobacco was involuntary.

NYT obit:

The two agencies he led rank among the biggest in the world today, and Mr. Foote, tall and distinguished-looking, stood as one of the giants of the industry. He became known to the general public for his acerbic views of tobacco advertising, which eventually prompted him to leave advertising. He was a former chain-smoker and was a director of the American Cancer Society.

Mr. Foote resigned as chairman of McCann-Erickson in 1964, saying he was opposed to handling cigarette accounts. He was then a member of President Lyndon B. Johnson's Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer and Stroke and endorsed the Surgeon General's report that linked cigarette smoking and lung cancer.

He ridiculed protestations that billions spent on promotions had nothing to do with people taking up the habit. "I am always amused," Mr. Foote said, "by the suggestion that advertising, a function that has been shown to increase consumption of virtually every other product, somehow miraculously fails to work for tobacco products."