From a New York Times obit by Sam Roberts headlined “Ted Bell, Creative Adman Turned Author of Thrillers, Dies at 76”:

Ted Bell, a former award-winning advertising copywriter and creative director who abandoned Madison Avenue in his early 50s to recast himself as a best-selling novelist by writing and marketing his Alex Hawke spy thrillers, died in Hartford, Conn.

Mr. Bell evolved from a successful advertising executive seductively pitching products like Heinz ketchup, Miller Lite beer and Marlboro cigarettes to an author of fever-pitch thrillers for readers enraptured by the exploits of Hawke, a British billionaire secret agent.