Digiday Publishing Summit:

Connect with execs from The New York Times, TIME, Dotdash Meredith and many more

SECURE YOUR SEAT

Internet mourns the retirement of noted subway advertiser Dr. Zizmor

Ads on the New York City subway are about to become less colorful now that Dr. Jonathan Zizmor has announced he’s finished.

The Daily News reports that he’s quietly closed his Midtown clinic and is done administering acid peels and botox treatments. The 70-year-old dermatologist is retiring. Zizmor became a micro-celebrity in New York due to his campy, cheesy and colorful subway ads that promised “beautiful clear skin” and other modern miracles.

Zizmor’s face has been glaring at passengers since the early 1980s, when he was one of the first doctors to advertise there. “I got a lot of heat when I started,” Zizmor said in 2009, adding “No one was on the subway … no one was even advertising.”

Soon after the news broke, Zizmor’s name started trending on Twitter as people mourned the end of an era:

Now we’ll have to just endure years of Casper and CitiBank ads.

https://digiday.com/?p=153857

More in Marketing

Generative AI sparks brand safety concerns marketers know all too well

Despite concerns around brand misuse and IP, most marketers are sticking to traditional strategies.

‘Production is a big topic right now’: With AI moving beyond media, Publicis turns toward creative

The holdco is positioning AI as core infrastructure for ad production not just media buys.