BAKER, Stephen 1921-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE— See index for CA sketch: Born April 17, 1921, in Vienna, Austria; died of cancer of the gastrointestinal tract September 13, 2004, in New York, NY. Business executive and author. Baker was a highly regarded advertising executive well known for his creative campaigns, as well as for being the author of a number of whimsical books, such as How to Live with a Neurotic Dog (1960). Born in Austria and spending much of his childhood in Hungary, he immigrated with his family to the United States when he was nineteen years old and attended New York University. After completing a B.A. there in 1944, he studied at the Art Students League for a year and then joined a New York City advertising agency as an art assistant. A quickly rising star known for his talents as both an artist and creative writer, Baker was vice president and art director at Cunningham & Walsh in New York City by 1949. He left the agency to found his own company, Baker & Byrne, which, through a series of mergers, was eventually swallowed up by Griswold-Eshleman Co. In 1971, Baker left Griswold-Eshleman and started a new advertising agency, Stephen Baker Associates. During these years, Baker became a highly respected figure in advertising, working with such companies as AT&T, Texaco, Folgers, and Smith Corona. Highly creative in his approach, he was fearless in trying new ideas, such as posters without words and commercials that were shot without scripts. One of his most famous campaigns was for AT&T, for which he created the "Let Your Fingers Do the Walking" slogan. As an author, Baker wrote a number of nonfiction works about advertising, such as Advertising Layout and Art Direction (1959), Systematic Approach to Advertising Creativity (1979), and The Advertiser's Manual (1988), but he was also the author of numerous humorous books. Some of these, such as How to Look like Somebody in Business without Being Anybody (1963) and Executive Mother Goose (1984), spoof the business world about which he knew so much, while others are comical takes on various aspects of life in America, including How to Be Analyzed by a Neurotic Psychoanalyst (1971), How to Live with a Neurotic Cat (1985), and How to Survive a Lawyer (1991). Three of his comical titles, How to Live with a Neurotic Dog, How to Live with a Neurotic Cat, and How to Play Golf in the Low 120's, were adapted as film shorts.

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New York Times, September 24, 2004, p. A25.