John Chervokas, the Poet Who Keeps Us from Squeezing the Charmin', Has Passed Away

According to this Washington Post article, John Chervokas, "an advertising man and wordsmith who was credited with introducing a toilet paper slogan into popular culture with his 'Please Don’t Squeeze the Charmin' campaign, has died at age 74."

A bit on the genesis of his famous slogan:

Chervokas was a junior copywriter at Benton & Bowles in 1964 when, he said, the image of housewives squeezing fruit in a supermarket inspired the toilet tissue campaign.

“What does mom do in the super-market? She squeezes the melons,” he wrote years later in Advertising Age. “And the tomatoes. And the bread. To see if they’re soft. ... Why not use the same test for Charmin?”

Even beyond the slogan, though, Chervokas was a very active writer:

His son said Chervokas was “a believer in the power of words” and wrote for hours each day — “poetry, prayers, an unpublished novel, he created crossword puzzles, everything.”

In 2000, The New York Times invited readers to submit poems in a form it said Chervokas invented: nine lines, 45 syllables, with the first line having nine syllables, the second eight syllables and so on. One submission started: “Please/don’t squeeze/the Charmin ...”

R.I.P.