A Take-Off on the Classic “Do You Know Me?” American Express Ad
By Mary Thom – editor, author and consultant for
The Women’s Media Center
In 1983, Bella Abzug, the former Congresswoman from New York, was a featured speaker at the first National Forum for Women State Legislators held by The Center for American Women in Politics. The gathering of 350 representatives from 46 states at the historic Hotel Del Coronado near San Diego was the largest number of elected women ever assembled in one place, according to former chair of the National Women’s Political Caucus Harriett Woods (Stepping Up to Power), who was a state senator from Missouri at the time.
At the time, American Express was running its famous “DO YOU KNOW ME?” ads and filming Forum participants in take-offs on their own ad campaign. Coming upon the set as she strolled through the hotel courtyard, Bella sat down and, as the CAWP website explains, “Created her own unforgettable ‘Do You Know Me’ ad.”
Earlier, Congresswoman Abzug had sponsored a bill to guarantee that women would have credit rights equal to men. As her then aide Marilyn Marcosson said in an interview for our oral history of Bella, “Bella was like the Congresswoman for every woman in the world. . . . It was a period of incredible activity, just the number of issues: the Clean Water Bill, the Highway Bill, the Equal Credit Act, ERISA (the Employment Retirement Income Security Act of 1974), the Child Care Act, the end of the war in Vietnam, the Resolution of Inquiry on Nixon’s pardon, the bill to fund the International Women’s Year meetings and the Houston Conference. By taking the far forward position, Bella allowed others to move up and look more moderate.”
Later in life Bella became an international leader and activist on a range of women’s and global environmental issues. She may even be better known in several other countries than in her own. To this day, women leaders in emerging countries will identify themselves as “the Bella Abzug of Nigeria” or “the Bella Abzug of Mongolia.”
To those of us who knew and worked with her, Bella will always remain unforgettable.
Bella Abzug – An Oral History – by Suzanne Braun Levine and Mary Thom. Copyright © 2007 by Suzanne Braun Levine and Mary Thom (November 2007 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux/New York, LLC). All rights reserved.
About CAWP – www.cawp.com
The Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is nationally recognized as the leading source of scholarly research and current data about American women’s political participation. Its mission is to promote greater knowledge and understanding about women’s participation in politics and government and to enhance women’s influence and leadership in public life.