She put the “plop plop, fizz fizz” into Alka-Seltzer. She warned Benson & Hedges smokers that long cigarettes might pop balloons or set fire to beards. And from Niagara Falls to Broadway, she reached millions with her “I ♥ NY” campaign. Ms. Wells Lawrence was the first woman to own and run a major national advertising agency — Wells Rich Greene — and the first female chief executive of a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. She was “arguably the most powerful and successful woman ever to work in advertising,” Stuart Elliott, who was then the advertising columnist of The New York Times, wrote in 2002 of Ms. Wells Lawrence, who sold her agency for $160 million (about $385 million today) and retired in 1990.

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Persons: Seltzer, Benson, Mary Wells Lawrence, Katy Bryan, Ms, Wells Lawrence, Wells Rich Greene —, ” Stuart Elliott Organizations: Braniff, Alka, Hedges, New York Stock Exchange, The New York Times Locations: Niagara Falls, Broadway, Ohio, New York, London