Rance Crain to be Inducted Into Advertising Hall of Fame

Rance Crain, president, Crain Communications Inc., and editor-in-chief of Advertising Age, Crain’s Chicago Business, Crain’s New York Business and TelevisionWeek.com has been named to the American Advertising Federation’s 64^th annual Advertising Hall of Fame. Crain joins his father G. D. Crain, his mother Gertrude Crain and Sid Bernstein, former editor, editorial director and publisher of Advertising Age as hall of fame inductees.

“Being inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame is a tremendously exclusive honor reserved for highly accomplished individuals who have had a profound impact on our industry and the world around them over the course of their truly impressive careers,” said Laurence Boschetto, chairman of the Advertising Hall of Fame.

The official induction ceremonies and gala dinner will be held April 29, 2013, in the Grand Ballroom of New York’s historic Waldorf Astoria hotel. Other inductees on that evening will include:

Bob Giraldi, president, Giraldi Media and Film Director

Philip H. Knight, co-founder and chairman, NIKE, Inc.

Shelly Lazarus, chairman emeritus, Ogilvy & Mather

Byron E. Lewis Sr., founder and chairman emeritus, UniWorld Group, Inc.

Gerry Rubin, co-chairman, RPA

Bob Scarpelli, former chairman and chief creative officer, DDB Worldwide

The Advertising Hall of Fame is administered by the American Advertising Federation (AAF). The event will be made available as a live simulcast exclusively to the American Advertising Federation’s nearly 200 local ad federations, with a potential audience outside the Waldorf’s Grand Ballroom of tens of thousands of advertising leaders nationwide.

Crain’s career began as a reporter for Advertising Age in its Washington bureau and later moved to the publication’s New York and Chicago offices. He continues to lead Advertising Age as editor-in-chief and writes a bi-weekly column for the leading industry publication.

Crain was named senior editor of Advertising Age in 1965 and he was appointed first editor of Business Insurance in 1967 and editorial director of Crain Communications in 1971. He added the title of company president in 1973.

Crain founded four of the company’s influential titles — Pensions & Investments, Crain’s Chicago Business, Crain’s New York Business and Electronic Media (now published as tvweek.com).

A graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and former sports editor of The Daily Northwestern (1960), Crain is a charter member of Medill’s Hall of Achievement and a proud recipient of the 1992 Northwestern University Merit Award. He is a member of the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame and was the recipient of Kodak’s Print Ambassador Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2009 Missouri School of Journalism Medal of Honor. Among his business and charitable activities, Crain served 13 years as a board member of Lee Enterprises, a New York Stock Exchange Newspaper company in Davenport, Iowa.