I haven’t lived in NYC for more than 20 years, but I still associate it with Dr Zizmor, a dermatologist. His ads were all over the subway.
He retired not too long ago. I know because it was notable enough to deserve a feature in the NY Times.
I remember those ads...
Here, the infamous one are these James Wang, Esq ads on the placemats for Chinese restaurants in the area. I suspect he placed the ad 20 years ago but they never bothered to change the design...
I grew up in NJ in the 80s, and his ads were all over network TV as well. Man, that's a name I haven't thought of in a long time.
I didn't grow up in New York but my wife did, and I think she's mentioned this name before. There's also this specific law practice that would advertise everywhere that I forget the name of that used to have two lawyers in the name but now only has one, which apparently is quite jarring a lot of people who grew up here and were used to the old ads.
Given how I grew up relatively close to here from a regional perspective (in the Boston area), I was not at all prepared for just how many specific cultural references there are in New York that I would not be familiar with. My in-laws were mildly scandalized by the fact that I had not heard of "Fudgie the Whale" when the topic came up in the first year my wife and I dated.