# 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.