Bologna rises to top of the ad game Anne Bologna is now president of the New York office of Fallon Worldwide (submitted photo). A Green Bay native takes over at a major New York firm By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle Anne Bologna never planned to get into advertising. The Green Bay native went off to become a TV reporter. But she decided it wasn't what she wanted to do. So she went to take an interest inventory test. It pointed her toward advertising. We should all get such good advice. Earlier this year, Bologna was named president of the New York office of Fallon Worldwide, one of the nation's major advertising agencies. The woman she replaced, Alison Burns, decided to step down for family reasons. "She had a 5-year-old daughter, and it was clear she was ready to leave, she was kind of worn out," said Bologna from her New York office. At the time, Bologna had been with Fallon's Minneapolis office for nine years, most recently as director of account planning. While there, she handled a lot of large national accounts, including Citibank and United Airlines. Among the most familiar ad campaigns she's worked on are the series for Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express ("I'm not a doctor, but I did stay ..."). She was also behind the "herding cats" ad for EDS that ran during the Super Bowl in 2002. And she's involved in one of the most interesting "new media" advertising promotions around: a series of short films, made by famous Hollywood directors, for BMW, available at its Web site. So how does a woman get from Green Bay to the New York advertising scene? "I did the usual; I was a (St. Joseph's) Academy girl who dated a Premontre boy," she said. "He went off to the Naval Academy and I went to St. Catherine's College in St. Paul, and married my husband my senior year." A short stint as a TV reporter in Moorhead, Minn., left her "feeling old at 25." Then she took the test. "A lot of the signs pointed to advertising, and I was surprised. I never had a remote interest in it," she said. A counselor suggested she meet with some people in the business, and Bologna was quickly offered a job. She says she enjoys the work because it combines both creativity and discipline. "Advertising is one of the few industries that is both art and business," she said. "Those are two very polar things. One day, I'll sit in a meeting with somebody with purple hair and tattoos getting inspired creatively, and the next, I'll be with the CEO of United." She credits her ability to keep a foot in both worlds to her parents. "Well, that's where I get the right side of the brain, the sensible side. My father had something of a scientist sensibility," she said. And her mother, Carolyn Barnard, is a noted local artist. "I became both of those people," she said. "Some of those rare birds that fall in the middle seem to rise to the top in agencies; they have broader, more diverse skills to draw on." After four years as head of planning in Minneapolis, the move to New York was "a natural progression," she said. "Being an empty-nester helps a lot," she added. "My husband (Peter) is in between careers himself; he's an attorney who's going back to get his masters in psychology."