The men’s clothing entrepreneur Herb Goldsmith had an instinct for capturing the public eye.

In the 1950s, when he was working for his father’s apparel company, he was among the first to use celebrities, among them Tony Curtis and Bing Crosby, to sell clothing. In the 1980s, he again used well-known figures to sell his Members Only racing jacket. Soon, stars like Frank Sinatra and Johnny Carson were sporting the jacket, as were Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush.

Then Mr. Goldsmith did something that few if any brands had ever done: He stopped all conventional advertising of his apparel and devoted his entire ad budget to public service announcements.

The first public service campaign addressed the crack epidemic of the 1980s, using sports figures like Lou Piniella, the manager of the Yankees at the time, and the country singer Larry Gatlin of the Gatlin Brothers, who struggled with addiction.

The second campaign urged people to vote by showing footage of Hitler and suggesting that voting was the way “to keep fools like these out of our government.”