John Josef Sedelmaier, an only child, was born on May 31, 1933 in Orrville, Ohio. His father, Josef Sedelmaier, a German immigrant who worked as an accountant, died in 1941. His mother, Anne (Baughman) Sedelmaier, was a nurse and became deputy director of maternal and child health for the Ohio Department of Health.
An aspiring cartoonist, Sedelmaier earned a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1955. After graduating, he worked as an art director at four agencies: Young & Rubicam, Clinton E. Frank, Leo Burnett and J. Walter Thompson, where he began as a commercial director for accounts such as Chun King, Chinese canned food. In 1967 he opened his own studio in Chicago.
The commercial that built his national reputation was for Southern Airways in 1974.
The idea, proposed to him by the airline agency, emphasized the airline’s single-class service. In the ad, a man flying for a rival airline enters a plane where first-class passengers are engaged in a bacchanal eating lobster and drinking champagne. But the man’s ticket is for the “second cabin,” behind a curtain, where, as a dirge plays, he finds a grim-looking third-class compartment full of peasants.
The ad, called “Orgy,” won numerous awards, including Clios.
Over the next two decades, Sedelmaier created commercials for dozens of companies, including Del Taco, Timex, Little Caesars, Dunkin’ Donuts, Kay Jewelers and Fiberglas Pink, an insulation manufacturer in Canada.
