Actor and advertising genius Charlie Moss has died. He was 85.
The late ad executive, who helped produce successful campaigns including those “I heart NY” tourism ads in the ’70s, died on Aug. 5 of a heart attack, his wife Susan Calhoun Moss confirmed, per The New York Times.
Moss died at his home in Wainscott, New York, the outlet reported. The publication’s Legacy page stated he and his wife had been married for 47 years.
Born Charles Moskowitz, Moss also helped create Alka-Seltzer’s iconic “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz” jingle featured in ads that ran in the late ’70s, as well as the “Flick of My Bic” campaign for Bic lighters, which also ran around the same time.
While discussing the Alka-Seltzer commercial in 1972, Moss told The New York Times, “We’ve created a natural language for television; we’ve given the man in the street ammunition to be a comedian.”
Charlie Moss in Southampton, New York, on July 1, 2007.
Patrick McMullan via Getty
“That’s the psychological reason for the success. The characters in the commercials are personable, vulnerable people — the average man can identify with them, he can use their lines and be sure of getting a laugh. We’ve made the average man a kind of minor hero,” he added at the time.
“I’ve never seen it happen like this,” he told the outlet of the Alka-Seltzer series’ success.
Moss worked alongside the likes of New York State Commerce Commissioner John S. Dyson to create the “I heart NY” campaign, as well as collaborators from Mary Wells Lawrence’s ad agency Wells Rich Greene.
“Charlie was indispensable to the whole project,” Dyson told the Times.
The well-known slogan and logo, which was designed by graphic artist Milton Glaser and has been used through the years in a bid to boost tourism in the U.S., still appears in many brochures and souvenir shops.
Susan Calhoun Moss and Charlie Moss in New York City on Nov. 19, 2013.
Paul Porter/BFA/Shutterstock
In 1978, Moss and Dragoti won a Tony Awardfollowing the success of the I Love NYBroadway show tours, alongside its sponsor, the New York State Department of Commerce.
Following the campaign’s success, Moss and Stan Dragoti, who worked together at Wells Rich Greene in the ’60s and ’70s, launched Moss/Dragoti in 1995, after the former company closed, per a previous Times article. The pair had also previously teamed up on the 1972 movie Dirty Little Billy.
Moss also had a successful acting career, appearing in shows including Little Fugitiveas a child star in 1953. He went on to appear in episodes of series like Law & Order in 2006 and Person of Interest in 2011, among other projects.
He most recently starred in an episode of Mozart in the Jungle in 2015.
