madison avenue's miss avener is her own best advertisement
If there's any place where hype is raised to high art, it's Madison Avenue. Here, in the high-pressure capital of advertising, everything's the best, the biggest, the hottest. So when we heard that Madison Avenue had its own most beautiful woman--and that she was a real, live, 50-hour-a-week ad lady--we had to check it out. Which is how we met the remarkable Robin Avener. That's assistant producer Avener, by the way, at Ogilvy & Mather Partners, one of New York's most prestigious advertising agencies. Not a bad spot for a 28-year-old. "O. & M. is a great place to work," Robin says. "We're like a family. The people are open-minded, fair, always there when you need them. It's a great teaching agency, and in my time here, I've learned everything from video editing and handling recording sessions to setting shooting schedules and helping prepare commercials." Robin thrives on that kind of variety. She grew up in Levittown, New York, and moved to Denver--on her own--at the age of 18. "Denver was a perfect place for me. It was new; I'd never seen it. I decided to go on a Thursday night and left Friday morning."
Two years later, Robin and her sister, Leslie, decided to start their own business in Florida. The business just happened to be selling high-temperature and exotic metals--you know, the stuff from which they make missiles. "There we were, in our bikinis by the pool, dealing on the phone to Boeing and Hughes and the U.S. Navy. Do you know how many weekends I spent rewrapping six-foot bars of molybdenum in my living room?"
Back in New York, she joined an all-women rock band and worked in a recording studio before joining O. & M. as a secretary. That was three years, and as many promotions, ago. "I thrive on the creative work I do, because I need a lot of intellectual stimulation." When she's not slaving over a hot campaign, Robin spends her time with her boyfriend, a composer of electronic music. "He's really inspiring. He's successful, knows what he wants; there's a wonderful, wonderful quiet confidence about him, and that helps give me strength." Although she plans to stay at O. & M., Robin admits she'd like to try the other side of the camera. A woman of her word, she recently started taking classes in stand-up comedy. "I get real bored unless I take risks once in a while. I'd rather do something and find out what happens than sit around and wonder the rest of my life."
