Sal DeVito

Sal DeVito (July 16, 1947 – July 15, 2024) was an American marketing and advertising executive based in New York City, New York. He was a partner, with Ellis Verdi, in DeVito/Verdi.

Early years and education DeVito was born and grew up in Brooklyn, New York and later attended State University of New York at Farmingdale (SUNY Farmingdale), majoring in advertising art. He later graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 1971.

Career DeVito's first job was designing matchbook covers for the firm of Conahay & Lion.

In the early 1970s, DeVito was hired by the Ted Bates advertising agency, but was laid off during the 1973–75 recession and worked at a gas station on Long Island pumping gas at a Texaco station for $2 an hour for eight months before getting hired by Ketchum Advertising. Some of the students DeVito taught ended up helping to start the DeVito/Verdi agency. In July 1993, Follis left the firm, citing philosophical differences, to open Follis Advertising. In 1993, the firm is renamed DeVito/Verdi.

Since the firm's beginning, the staff devoted 15 percent of their time to pro bono work.

In 2002, DeVito was awarded a Clio Award in the Public Service category for the American Civil Liberties Union urging prison reform.

In 2004, DeVito won numerous awards for his radio spot, "Golf" for the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. The spot won the Art Directors Annual Award 2004 (Gold) for Radio Advertising, the One Show 2004 (Gold) for Consumer Radio, the American Advertising Awards ADDY 2004 (Gold) for Regional/National campaign, and the London International Advertising Awards 2004 (Winner) for radio.

In 2007, DeVito created a $3 million television, radio, print, and poster campaign for Legal Sea Foods restaurants using humor to make the point of the freshness of their seafood. The pun filled advertisements offered headlines like "Right about now your dinner is having breakfast" and "A seafood restaurant so exclusive, 9 out of 10 fish can’t get in."

In 2015, DeVito worked again with Legal Sea Foods on a satirical proselytizing broadcast and print campaign extolling the virtues of a fictitious religion, called Pescatarianism. The campaign even created a mock website to continue the message online.

Sal DeVito died on July 15, 2024, one day before his 77th birthday.