WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — 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, died Saturday of a stroke. He was 74.
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. The campaign featured television commercials in which a supermarket employee, Mr. Whipple, was assigned to keep shoppers from squeezing the Charmin.
Whipple, played by Dick Wilson, became one of TV’s best-known characters. Charmin became the best-selling tissue by 1969. Advertising Age said the campaign was among the top 100 of the 20th century. The Associated Press
