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 who became the assistant director of maternal and child health for the Ohio Department of Health.
An aspiring cartoonist, Mr. Sedelmaier earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree 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 started as a director on commercials for accounts likeChun King canned Chinese 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, brought to him by the airline’s agency, emphasized the carrier’s one-class service. In the ad, a man flying on a rival airline enters a plane in which the first-class passengers are in the midst of a lobster-eating, Champagne-popping bacchanalia. But the man’s ticket is for the “second cabin,” behind a curtain — where, as a funereal dirge plays, he finds a grim-looking, peasant-filled steerage compartment.
The ad — called “Orgy” — won numerous awards, including Clios.
For the next two decades, Mr. Sedelmaier created commercials for dozens of companies, including Del Taco, Timex, Little Caesars, Dunkin’ Donuts, Kay Jewelers and Fiberglas Pink, an insulation maker in Canada.
