McDonald’s VP/chief creative officer Marlena Peleo- Lazar was named 2004 Advertising Woman of the Year by the Women’s Advertising Club of Chicago and the Chicago Advertising Federation. She will be honored at a July 13 luncheon at the Drake hotel.
Peleo-Lazar is the first woman in McDonald’s history to lead and direct all creative work for the company. Recently she won critical acclaim for the “I’m lovin’ it” campaign, the fast food giant’s first-ever global campaign.
Peleo-Lazar was at Ogilvy & Mather before joining McDonald’s in 2000, and before that spent 22 years at Leo Burnett. Her contributions to the advertising business include serving on the CAF board for the past six years, and creating and leading the committee that produced the first Chicago Creative Club Awards last September. She is also an active volunteer for many non-profit organizations that provide food and shelter for Chicago’s homeless in the Chicago area.
This is the first year that WACC and CAF are co- sponsoring the Advertising Woman of the Year Award under a new partnership formed last year.
Peleo-Lazar is the 46th Ad Woman of the Year since the award was created in 1958. WACC, founded in 1917, remains the oldest professional adwomen’s organization in the U.S. (FYI: ReelChicago publisher Ruth L Ratny was Ad Woman of the Year in 1979, the same year she founded the Original Screen Magazine, a fact glaringly omitted from the “new” Screen’s recent 25th anniversary issue.)
To purchase luncheon tickets, call CAF at 847/375- 4728.
