As World War II came to a close, Margaret Hockaday decided the time was right to open her own agency. She resolved to "gather up all the things [she'd] done and put them to use in one venture" (Johnson 1957, 50). So she, along with art director Alvin Chereskin, borrowed a bit of capital and rented out a former one-chair barber shop on 58th Street and 2nd Avenue. Hockaday Associates opened their doors in 1949.

However, clients were slow in coming, at least at first. So Hockaday and Chereskin created a booklet entitled What to Wear When , an idea that Hockaday had earlier. The publication, aimed at North American Tourists, was used by large retail outlets across the country, and Bantam Books began distributing the work nationally (Johnson 1957, 50). This was the first success at Hockaday Associates.

Hockaday Associates finally landed its first client in Capezio, Inc., a manufacturer of dancers' shoes, in 1950. For the first six years Hockaday Associates did not run one advertisement for Capezio. Rather, the firm "created 'delightfully mad' mailing pieces and displays to position Capezio as a 'state of mind'" (Neuberger-Lucchesi 1994, 188).

The campaign centered around a character named Polka Dotta, a character created by an art director who, at Hockaday's request, attended a children's finger painting class. Hockaday felt that in order to stress Capezio's 'mad' state of mind strategy, the art direction for the campaign needed to be relaxed, playful, and carefree. Hockaday was interested in creating advertising that was different, that broke through the clutter, in order to create a brand personality. In an Advertising Age article from November, 1957, she stated that "advertisers search the offbeat to gain conspicuousness above the overwhelming crowd of products and advertising pages looking and declaiming exactly like himself" (8).

The Capezio campaign took off. Women nationwide sought out the brand, often writing Hockaday herself for purchase information. Polka Dotta was a sensation - "toy buyers asked the agency where they could by stuffed Polka Dottas" (Johnson 1957, 50).

In 1961, Hockaday Associates ran the ad which is pictured below. The copy reads "Hail Capezio! With liberty from conformity for all."

An Advertising Age brief from February, 1961, noted that the ad ran in the New York Times Magazine, Seventeen, and Vogue. "The campaign is a continuation of the Capezio strategy of selling, not shoes themselves, but a blithe state of mind. Such a philosophy is proving to be a successful answer in a market where competition is frenetic" (1961, 1b). Hockaday had an idea, and coupled with a client willing to accept nonconformist advertising, she made that idea soar out of the shadows of traditional benefit-driven, product-shot oriented advertising. And so potential clients saw what Hockaday Associates could do for them. The ball was rolling.

To find out more about some of Hockaday Associates' major clients, click here.

To return to the beginning, click here.