Sy Sperling, a businessman who helped bring the hair-loss industry into the mainstream with huge late-night ad buys, died Feb. 19 at a hospital in Boca Raton, FL. He was 78.

Mr. Sperling achieved a kind of cult fame in the 1980s for his business, then called the Hair Club for Men. What propelled the concept was the ad kicker: he would hold up an old photo of his own bald pate and tell viewers, “I’m not only the Hair Club president, I’m also a client.” In 2000, Mr. Sperling sold his company to a private-equity firm for $45 million.