November 1, 2023 — The Medical Advertising Hall of Fame (MAHF) has announced its 2024 inductees: Longtime Ogilvy Health leader David Chapman and Wishbone and Calcium founder Steven Michaelson.
David Chapman entered the marketing world as a junior copywriter at Alden Advertising. Following stints at Ruvane-Leverte (where he developed the first HCP CRM program) and Kallir, Philips, Ross (where he supported a range of Johnson & Johnson Rx and consumer products), Chapman joined Nelson Communications to head up MediCom, the firm’s division specializing on video sales materials for pharma reps.
But it was under the WPP aegis that Chapman truly established his leadership bona fides. He was a key cog in the growth of Ferguson Associates, CommonHealth and Ogilvy Health, becoming one of the individuals most responsible for unifying 13 distinct agency brands as CommonHealth. He also launched Altum, thought to be the industry’s first high-science specialist agency. Later in his WPP tenure, he helped write winning consolidation pitches for big swaths of Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson business.
Chapman donated his time to numerous New York City-based charities, including the Billion Oyster Project and the Hudson River Park Association. He graduated from Vassar College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in geology.
Steven Michaelson began his career in the 1980s as a designer and, later, a creative chief at some of the agency world’s most prominent companies, including FCB, Harrison and Star and Robert A. Becker. In 1998, he struck out on his own with the founding of Wishbone, which counted among its founding values both an emphasis on creativity and an absence of bureaucracy.
After selling Wishbone to Rosetta Marketing Group in 2010, Michaelson went the entrepreneur route once again when he founded Calcium in 2012. Prior to his retirement in March 2023, Michaelson engineered the November 2021 sale of the agency to NexPhase Capital. He also oversaw the launch of Calcium + Company, which houses Calcium, medcomms arm Vitamin MD, PR division PRotein and oncology unit Amino.
Charities with which he has worked closely include Haven Kids Rock, the USTA Foundation and the Community-Police Relations Foundation. Michaelson graduated from Pratt Institute with a Master of Fine Arts.
About the Medical Advertising Hall of Fame: The MAHF was founded in 1996 to preserve the history and heritage of the medical advertising profession as well as to recognize the industry’s most influential and respected forebears. Since then, MAHF has grown that mission to include recognition of past excellence in creative work, creation of educational resources and support of value of diversity, equity and inclusion in the industry.
The inductees will be honored on February 8, 2024, at a black-tie dinner at The Pierre Hotel in New York City. Seats and tables may be reserved at www.mahf.com/gala2024. For information about advertising in the Awards Dinner program or other MAHF programming, please contact MAHF executive director Anne Gideon at anne@mahf.com.