Born to a
Jewish family and raised in
New York City, Kaplan Thaler graduated from
The Bronx High School of Science in 1968. She studied at
CCNY, earning a BS in psychology and later a Master of Music from the same institution. She is a member of the
Phi Beta Kappa honors society. She spent 17 years of her early career at
J. Walter Thompson where she was a Senior Vice President, then went to Wells Rich Greene as Executive Vice President and Executive Creative Director. She founded the Kaplan Thaler
Group in 1997 and worked as the CEO and Chief Creative officer for it. She later renamed the Kaplan Thaler Group to Kaplan Thaler Productions. Here she created the Aflac duck and the daring “Yes, Yes, Yes” campaign for Clairol Herbal Essences. She has authored and composed jingles that are among the industry's gold standard, including “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up, I’m a Toys ‘R’ Us Kid,” and “Kodak Moments.” She has also worked on several political campaigns, including presidential runs for
Bill Clinton and
Al Gore in 1992 and
Hillary Clinton in 2008, as well as
Bill Bradley in 2000. Kaplan Thaler served as chairman of
Publicis New York until 2016. ==Television==