Noel A. Mitchell (April 27, 1859 – October 6, 1936; born in Block Island, Rhode Island) was a businessman and advertiser who built considerable wealth through the sale of Atlantic City salt water taffy, and a burgeoning real estate business in St. Petersburg, Florida, which would later fund his successful run for mayor of St. Petersburg.

Coming from a humble background, Mitchell attended public school in Rhode Island and later enrolled in a course in business college.

Advertised as "a mixture of easy-flowing sweetness and the salty Atlantic Ocean",[2] Mitchell carefully crafted his brand.

Mitchell also offered to ship his taffy nationwide for a flat fee of 40 cents, making it affordable to purchase and easily attainable outside the immediate area.

On July 6, 1911, The Evening Independent published news of an impending lawsuit against a Connecticut firm owned by P. A. Atwood for infringing upon Mitchell's trademark use of "salt water".

[5] Before long, Mitchell became a champion for St. Petersburg, as while he not only developed numerous ways of advertising his business, he also used his position as a leader of the chamber of commerce to boost not only himself nationally, but also the city itself.

Mitchell tried everything to garner national attention, including the distribution of motion pictures showing celebrations in St. Petersburg, sending post cards depicting local wonders to every person who bought his Original Atlantic City Salt Water Taffy and even helped to finance the creation of an air boat hangar for one of the first commercial airline companies in the United States.

In an era of unintended consequences, Mitchell created more national notoriety for St. Petersburg by simply trying to advertise his shop than many of his other ploys.

The effect of such thinking would lead to the blocking of a levy whose purpose was to require a "tuition charge" be placed upon tourists in an effort to pay for local education.

Noticing an increase of "Tin Can Tourists" due to a lack of hotel accommodations, Mitchell seized the opportunity to create more headlines for St. Petersburg.

This did not ban local individuals from continuing in the footsteps of Mitchell, and soon outside of city limits other sites began to arise.

Forever the champion of St. Petersburg, Mitchell along with others did whatever they could do to alleviate the fears of both visitors and local citizens by fixing and hiding damage as quickly as possible.

Downplaying the risk of future damage by storms was also a common tool in securing continued faith in the new city.

In November 1921, the local police raided a party Mitchell hosted in his mayoral office and later charged him with public drunkenness.

[11] Mitchell in turn published a formal statement that took up half a page within The Evening Independent in which he defended himself, denied his drunkenness and unleashed a scathing attack on his accusers.