Joy Golden, award-winning writer and one of the pioneering women of her industry during the "Mad Men" era, passed away on August 29 after a brief illness. She was 85.
As president of Joy Radio, Inc., and prior to that as an ad agency creative director and copywriter, Golden was a lauded talent with work that earned honors from ADDY, Clio, the One Show, Effies, Mercury, ANDY, the International Radio Festival, IBA, and the London International Festival Grand Prix. She is best known for her celebrated radio commercials, including Laughing Cow Cheese, which is part of the permanent collection of the Paley Center (formerly the Museum of Broadcasting). Her life’s work, known as The Joy Golden Papers, 1956-2012, is part of the permanent collection of the Duke University Hartman Center at David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Other noted campaigns she created were for Anheuser-Busch’s Eagle Snacks, Coca-Cola, Dunkin’ Donuts, Ladies Home Journal, Levi’s, and the Broadway musical La Cage Aux Folles. She invented hundreds of iconic characters for her funny and sometimes racy radio commercials, including the “cheese-loving Valley Girl” and the Broadway musical fan, “Adele Kaminsky,” voiced by Joy herself. Golden was the cosmetic maven, the fashion expert, the fragrance authority, the women’s products know-it-all, writing television commercials and magazine ads
Golden deployed an original wit and an instantly recognizable sense of humor that spoke to human idiosyncrasies and frailties. Beginning in the late 1950s, she fought for and set the standard for what women could achieve in an almost exclusively male advertising industry.
Born in New York City to Hilda Isaacs Man and Dr. Albert E. Man, sister of Janet Man Viertel and Hillard Man, wife of Stanley L. Golden, she is survived by her loving daughters Suzanne Golden of Manhattan and Lisbeth Golden McKinley of Oakland, California.
Throughout her life Joy Golden mentored many writers and artists and helped launch their careers. She will be deeply missed by her extended family, friends and a virtual army of voiceover artists, co-writers, directors, producers and mentees.
