Advertising Hall of Famer Linda Kaplan Thaler is responsible for some of America’ s most famous and award-winning advertising campaigns, including the Aflac duck and the hilarious “Yes, Yes, Yes” commercials for Clairol Herbal Essences. She has composed jingles that are among the industry’s gold standard, including “I Don’ t Wanna Grow Up, I’m a Toys ‘ R’ Us Kid,” and “Kodak Moments.” Linda formerly was Chairman of Publicis Kaplan Thaler, with clients such as P&G, Citibank, Pfizer, and Wendy’s. Previously, Linda was CEO of the Kaplan Thaler Group, which she grew from a fledgling start-up to a company with over a billion dollars in billings. Today, Linda is a renown motivational speaker and is President of Kaplan Thaler Productions. Linda worked on the presidential runs for Clinton/Gore in 1992 and Hillary Clinton in 2008.
Linda is also a nationally acclaimed author and, together with Robin Koval, their newest bestseller, “GRIT to GREAT,” was ranked one of the top business books for 2015. Ms. Thaler is a familiar face in the media, having appeared on “The Apprentice,” “Good Morning America,” “The Today Show,” CNN, and as the host of Oxygen’s television series “Making It Big.” Linda’ s talents have earned her prestigious Matrix Award, the Advertising Woman of the Year Award, NYWIFT’s Muse award, and is one of Ad Age’ s “Most Influential Women in Advertising.” A Bronx native, Linda is a Phi Beta Kappa and Magna cum Laude graduate of CCNY and currently sits on the Advisory Council for The Colin Powell School at CCNY. Linda is married to award-winning composer Fred Thaler, and has two children, Michael and Emily.