Myril Axelrod

From KeyWiki

Myril Bennett Axelrod (born 1926) is a New York marketing and advertising professional. She is principal and president of New York City-based Marketing Directions Associates.^[1]

She is the mother of David Axelrod and was married to the late Joseph Axelrod.

Early life

Myril Bennett (born in 1926) - After leaving her hometown of Jersey City, NJ (across the Hudson River from NYC) , "I couldn't wait to get out of there!" Myril Bennett kick-started her career much like her son David Axelrod did, completing a bachelor's degree in journalism at New York University while covering news and politics for an ad-free leftist New York City daily newspaper called PM.^[2]

PM

In the 1940s Myril Axelrod worked for a left leaning New York magazine, PM. Though not officially a communist publication, several Marxists (including labour editor Leo Huberman) and Communist Party USA members worked on the paper.

Former Communist Eugene Lyons, writing in The Red Decade: The Stalinist Penetration of America, noted that PM’s staff included a former editor of the Daily Worker, former editor of The Communist, a leader of the Young Communist League USA, a Soviet government official and a former staff cartoonist for the Daily Worker, the official newspaper of the Communist Party USA.^[3]

PM's Washington DC correspondent I. F. Stone was later identified as a Communist Party USA member and a Soviet intelligence agent.

One of PM’s writers, Earl Conrad, also wrote for the leftist magazine Negro Story, as did Frank Marshall Davis the Communist Party USA member who was later to mentor the young Barack Obama in Hawaii.

The PM, and published its final issue on June 22, 1948.

Around this time in 1948 when the PM folded, Bennett Myril had married her husband Joseph Axelrod.

Career

Myril Axelrod spent 16 years with Young & Rubicam and six at Compton Advertising.

Service

Axelrod, a pioneer in qualitative research, was one of the first to introduce focus group research into marketing. She also is credited for being one of the first researchers to give builders the tools to look at their product from their customers’ perspective and helped to provide a deeper understanding of senior consumers. Axelrod is co-founder of the Qualitative Research Consultants Association and an active member of the NAHB Seniors Housing Council. In addition to writing and teaching a marketing course for seniors housing professionals, she served as the editorial board chair for the council’s magazine, Seniors’ Housing News, and was the editor of the book, “The Best of Seniors’ Housing News.”^[4]

References