Captain Marvelous, pictured below, appealed to a male's sense of humor when she appeared in a 1971 issue of Playboy, a magazine for mere men. The inside story behind this unique ad is as cute as Ms. Veronica Hamel, the model for the 'superwoman' drawing. The idea for a series of Virginia Slims 'women are superior' ads originated with Mike Stample, a very junior copywriter working for Leo Burnett's advertising agency. In 1970, Mr. Stample found a definitive book in the Chicago Public Library on just why females are better than males. Anthropologist Ashley Montagu, a male, wrote "On the Natural Superiority of Women," and it was this book that inspired Mike. That evening, and just for a lark, he created a series of light-hearted Woman's Liberation ads using Montagu's physical, emotional and intellectual reasons that explain just why women are better than men. Mike thought to entertain colleagues at the next Creative Review Committee meeting. These tongue in cheek ads were admired by a junior art director, who made sketches of several that mimicked ads produced for a real campaign. What began as a kind of joke, were now reviewed by Hal Weinstein, head of the creative group responsible for the Virginia Slims campaign. Mike suggested to his boss that these ads would "further rile up the feminists." Weinstein dismissed his concerns as "the foolishness of youth," and shortly thereafter the 21 year old copywriter quit to follow the youth movement and all the wonderful experiences that entailed. All of this resulted in a meeting at Leo Burnett that became legendary. Not wanting to offend, ad agency management met with leaders of local women's groups. A man representing Leo Burnett welcomed them with: "We have something that you girls are really going to love!" The Chicago Tribune Newspaper printed an article chronicling the resulting riot. Just the one ad picturing Captain Marvelous was published, and only in Playboy Magazine, but this classic "You've come a long way, baby" is a terrific example of an ad born of the feminist movement.