Frederick D. Sulcer

Early years Sulcer was born in Chicago in 1926 and grew up during the Great Depression. His father lost his Chicago-based advertising agency during the downturn. Sulcer had an egg delivery service He was an amateur actor in the Quadrangle Players theater group. and was promoted to captain in the United States Army Corps of Engineers. He wrote jingles for Household Finance Corporation including Never borrow money needlessly, but when you must, trust HFC.

To pitch Oklahoma gasoline (which became "Esso", then "Exxon", then "ExxonMobil"), he collaborated with psychologist Ernest Dichter and learned from research that drivers wanted both power and play for their automobiles. The pair, working with other agency creative people, selected the tiger as a visual symbol to express this desire. The agency borrowed a live tiger from the zoo which remained behind a large curtain while they presented the campaign idea to gasoline executives; at the end of the presentation, they opened the curtain to reveal the tiger. They won the account with the theme Put a Tiger in Your Tank.

Sulcer became assistant to the agency president Paul Harper.

Sulcer moved to Bronxville, New York in 1966 and managed the agency's New York City office. He helped persuade clients to support public service initiatives for the Advertising Council. Sulcer described the other guy theme and how it tried to improve awareness that other drivers were usually "nice, well-meaning people":

Sulcer helped persuade the Xerox corporation to support a TV series entitled Of Black America which was later recognized by then-president Gerald Ford as a positive effort to bring awareness to minority issues. as well as help interpret election results and political leanings. He held executive positions at Needham, Harper & Steers (now owned by Omnicom) including president of the New York Division, vice chairman of its international operations, Working with chairman Paul C. Harper, Jr., he helped the agency develop a reputation as a "hot creative shop" after it won awards for advertising during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was known for being a capable rainmaker who helped agencies pitch new business.

In 1978, he became director of new business development for DMB&B (now part of Publicis) and pitched numerous accounts. In 1990, he moved back to his previous agency, now called DDB Needham Worldwide to head up new business development, for clients such as Anheuser-Busch. He retired from the agency business in 1994.

Sulcer continued to teach and write about advertising in his later years. The lecture series described annual changes in the marketing environment during the previous year which suggested cultural shifts He died in 2004 at the age of 77.