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Carol Dunitz's wacky advertisements have driven her business.

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ALAN ABRAMS
Special to the Jewish News

C arol Dunitz has rede-
fined the meaning of
chutzpa.
Five years ago, when
the Ann Arbor-based mother of
four daughters was starting out
on her own, she decided she was
already at the top in her chosen
field of communications and
marketing. Selecting $225 as her
hourly fee, she approached a
prospective client.
"I'm the best there is," Dunitz
told her client.
"Show me some of your
work," challenged the client. "I
don't have any yet," replied
Dunitz. The client hired her any-
way, and her portfolio was born.
The story may be apocryphal,
but it displays the same zest for
self-promotion that led Dunitz
to rent an expensive billboard on
northbound 1-75 north of 1-94
in September to promote herself
and her new Web site.
Once it went up, she blitzed
Above: three of Carol Dunitz's poses for the bill- '-
the local news media with press
board.
releases and phone calls.
Dunitz calls herself a commu-
tion of Detroit and attended Detroit
nications guru and claims a loyal
Country Day in Beverly Hills,
"cult" following for her zany weekly
Bloomfield Hills' Cranbrook
ads in Crain's Detroit Business.
Kingswood and Grosse Pointe
, "Her quirky ads in Crain's are hon-
University Liggett schools, even get to
estly the first thing I turn to every
this point?
Monday," said Farmington Hills-
"I was raised to get a wonderful
based advertising agency owner
education," recalled Dunitz, but it
Dennis R. Green.
was kind of an old-world way I was
The ads feature Dunitz in a variety
supposed to use it to become a house-
of disguises. Five of them appeared on
wife and a homemaker and a volun-
the 1-75 billboard under the words
teer and a hostess. But I was never
"Follow The Cult" along with her
Carol Dunitz without disguise.
supposed to earn money with it.
Web site address.
"I have a doctorate in communica-
And she now charges $250 an
I didn't want to be a physician. Then
tions. I graduated from Michigan a
hour for her services.
I went back again and got a master's
few
months
after
I
turned
19.
When
I
So what's a nice Jewish girl — con-
and a Ph.D. I went to law school for
finished,
I
went
back
and
got
a
teach-
firmed at Temple Israel and graduated
a year.
ing
certificate
to
make
my
mother
from Temple Beth El — doing with a
"And at 25, I said to myself that
happy.
Then
I
went
back
and
took
cult? Indeed, how did Dunitz, who
I've
got to figure out what to do with
the pre-med curriculum and decided
grew up in the Sherwood Forest sec-

tc

11 / 19
1999

70

my life."
It was shortly afterward
that she got married,
had four kids in rapid
succession, and "did
what I was supposed to
o."
When she got
divorced a handful of
years ago, the oldest of
her children was 11.
"I had never even
earned 75 cents an
hour babysitting. I gave
myself a couple of years to
figure out what I was
going to do. I had a skill
set that I could take and
adapt to the business
world, but I had never
earned a living," said
Dunitz.
"Five years ago," she
added, "I decided to mar-
ket myself very aggressive-
ly."
She joined more than
20 organizations and
started going to networking events.
After about 15 months of running
her "straight" photo in a Crains classi-
fied ad each week, Dunitz had an idea
for a new ad campaign; the first ad
would have a beard and mustache
drawn on her face.
Mary Kramer, associate editor of
Crain's, still remembers that week in
July 1996. "About 100 people called
us to complain because they thought
someone had sabotaged the ad by
drawing a beard and mustache on
Dunitz's face," she said.
The next week, Crain's ran an item
about Dunitz's ad in its "Rumblings"
column and the legend was born.
From that point on, Dunitz began
doing more and more outrageous ads.
Dunitz compares it to turning to the
comic section first in a Sunday news-
paper. "It's the one thing that will put
a smile on your face," she said.
Certainly there is no doubt Dunitz
is being talked about, and that is her