David N. Martin

David N. Martin (April 19, 1930 – October 2, 2012) was an American advertising executive. In 1965, Martin and his business partner, George Woltz, co-founded The Martin Agency, an advertising agency headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. Martin also created the iconic tourism advertising slogan, Virginia is for Lovers, to market the U.S. state of Virginia as a tourist destination. In 2012, Advertising Age called Virginia is for Lovers, which was first unveiled in 1969, "one of the most iconic ad campaigns in the past 50 years." The advertising campaign is still used by Virginia as of 2016.

Martin was born in Tucson, Arizona, on April 19, 1930. His father, Hawley Phillips Martin, worked as the director of advertising and communications for the Southern States Cooperative and later became the Richmond branch of a Washington D.C. ad agency. He attended Thomas Jefferson High School in Richmond. Martin obtained his bachelor's degree in social science in 1952 from Hampden–Sydney College in Hampden Sydney, Virginia.

Martin's career after college began as an editorial cartoonist for a newspaper published once a week. He then joined the staff of VanSant Dugdale, an ad agency based in Baltimore, where he drew storyboards and wrote scripts for television commercials. He briefly worked in New York City during his early career, where he worked as a television producer, creating live content for The Today Show and The Tonight Show on NBC.

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