Ann Marie Fudge

Ann Marie Fudgeis an American executive best known for her innovative marketing campaigns at such corporations as General Mills, General Foods USA (GFUSA), and Maxwell House.

She attended Simmons College (B.A., 1973) in Boston, where she met Richard Fudge; the couple later married. After graduating with an M.B.A. from Harvard University in 1977, she worked nine years for General Mills in Minneapolis, Minn. Fudge advanced from marketing assistant to marketing director and was instrumental in the development and introduction of Honey Nut Cheerios, one of the country’s best-selling breakfast cereals.

Fudge joined GFUSA, Kraft General Foods’ largest operating unit, in 1986 as associate director of strategic planning. She soon moved into marketing positions, where her innovative coupon campaign targeting children boosted Kool-Aid’s flagging sales. As vice president of marketing and development (1989–91) for GFUSA’s Dinners and Enhancers Division, Fudge and her team, appealing to Americans’ growing health consciousness, developed the “Why fry?” slogan for Shake ’N Bake, another product that was on shaky ground. Sales increased at double-digit rates the following year. After her promotion in 1991 to executive vice president of GFUSA, Fudge oversaw the manufacture, promotion, and sales of such familiar name-brand products as Minute Rice, Log Cabin Syrup, and Good Seasons Salad Dressing.

Fudge was named to head Maxwell House in 1994. Under her leadership the company tried to turn its age into an advantage. Advertising campaigns featured jazz renditions of the venerable jingle (“ba ba ba ba bup bup”), and the longtime slogan “Good to the last drop” was emblazoned in neon above Times Square. To appeal to the twentysomething crowd, the company marketed a line of instant cappuccino drinks that promised to deliver “the magic without the machine.” Fudge was promoted to coffee and cereals division president in 1997. Four years later she left the company.

In 2003, following a two-year sabbatical, Fudge was appointed chairwoman and chief executive of Young & Rubicam Brands—the multinational advertising division of WPP Group, a communications company based in London—and of Y&R Advertising, the company’s largest division. With these positions Fudge became the first African American female to head a large division of an international advertising agency. She stepped down from Y&R in 2005 and from Young & Rubicam Brands the following year.

Fudge’s honours included the Black Achievers award from the Harlem YMCA in 1988, the Candace Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women in 1991, and the Boys and Girls Club of America President’s Award in 2000. She sat on the boards of Liz Claiborne, Inc., and Allied Signal, Inc. Her long history of community service included positions on the boards of the Women’s Economic Development Corp., the Partnership for a Drug Free America, the allocations panel of the United Way, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Executive Leadership Council.