NEW YORK - Advertising executive Philip B. Dusenberry, who oversaw the Pepsi television commercial in which Michael Jackson's hair caught fire and who helped coin some of the industry's best-known slogans, has died.
Dusenberry, who was 71, died of lung cancer Saturday at his Manhattan home, his advertising firm, BBDO, said in a news release.
Dusenberry was named one of the Top 100 Advertising People of the past century by Advertising Age. At BBDO he helped create the Pepsi theme line "The choice of a new generation" and the General Electric slogan "We bring good things to life."
In his television ads, he focused on advertising as entertainment, using beautifully filmed images, inspiring music and poignant themes to create emotional attachments between consumers and product brands, BBDO said. He liked to use special effects and often cast celebrities, including Lionel Richie and Madonna.
In 1984, while Jackson was taping a Pepsi ad, special effects that were supposed to create smoke blew up, burning the singer's hair and scalp. Jackson had to be taken to a hospital.
Dusenberry also worked in movies and was a co-author of the screenplay for "The Natural," in which Robert Redford plays a baseball prodigy making a return to the sport.
After the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, Dusenberry worked with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani to create a public service campaign to raise city residents' spirits. The "New York Miracle" campaign featured the likes of Woody Allen and Barbara Walters.
Dusenberry, a former chairman of BBDO North America, retired in 2002. The next year he was inducted into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Fame.
