Lessons: Please Pass the Bacon: A Tribute to Erwin Ephron

Gale Metzger

This article is a tribute to the late Erwin Ephron, tracking his progress from audience research at Nielsen to co-founding an ad agency and becoming a massive industry figure.

Lessons: Please Pass the Bacon: A Tribute to Erwin Ephron

Gale Metzger

Erwin Ephron and I forged a lifetime friendship when we worked together at Nielsen in the early 1960s—“forged” because there was heat and pressure in the setting. In 1962, there was a Congressional investigation on the purpose and accuracy of audience research, and regulation was considered; in 1963 there were public hearings. Clients were surprised by—and unhappy about—the disclosures at the hearings. Erwin and I shared the tension even as that pressure cemented us as confrères.

As part of the Nielsen response team, we each worked from...

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