The Usenet Clam

Subject: Ellis DeTreppen, 69, populizer of "Spam"
From: dave@boobs.eorbit.net (amassed child vigor)
Date: 1996/08/13
Message-ID: <4ur2ra$ke6@twizzler.callamer.com>
Newsgroups: alt.obituaries
        Ellis DeTreppen, author, advertising consultant, and father
        of three, died Monday at his Bernal Heights home in San
        Francisco.  He was 69.

        DeTreppen is perhaps best known for the 1973 advertising
        campaign he designed for Hormel.  The "It's Spam!" series
        of advertisements was the first to include invented
        recurring characters that viewers were hoped to identify
        with and want to learn more about.

        The "commerical as soap opera" theme has come back again
        and again since 1973, and DeTreppen served as a consultant
        for AT&T, Kraft Foods, and the InAndOut Burger chain.

        DeTreppen died from complications of mollusca credulis,
        which he had struggled with for the last thirty years.
        The disease, considered rare and usually not life-threatening,
        can be deadly to those with crippled immune systems.

        A memorial service and scattering of ashes will take place
        at the Presidio Memorial Rock on Saturday at 2 p.m.

        Memorial contributions can be made to the Mollusca Information
        Center.