Letters: Oct. 19, 1962

The Persuaders

Sir:

As a copywriter may I thank you for your article on advertising, "The Visible Persuaders" [Oct. 12]. For ten years my family and relatives have been wondering what the hell I'm up to.

BOB DOOLITTLE New York City

Sir:

Penetrating, valid and well written.

DAVID OGILVY Chairman

Ogilvy, Benson & Mather Inc. New York City

Sir:

You refer to research as the "occult art of head-candling." This statement does not make it any easier to win acceptance among client and agency executives for a fact-based method of carrying on work long since accepted by other business enterprises.

ALBRO MARTIN

Account Research Manager J. Walter Thompson Co. New York City

Sir:

I feel strongly that the ad industry as a whole has done much to give the American people a false and distorted sense of values. It is all-encompassing, like a poison gas that permeates the atmosphere, no matter how diligently one may try to escape.

I admit the self-made necessity of advertising in our economy, and cannot help wishing that all these brilliant minds were concerned less with making the gullible public want things they don't need, and more with true, constructive goals.

(MRS.) LAURA S. RUEKBERG

Park Forest, Ill.

Sir:

A fair and factual report on the industry. If it deserves any criticism at all, it is the failure to mention the amount of work done by volunteer agencies for the Advertising Council on such public-service campaigns as Smokey the Bear, savings bonds, college education and many others.

R. W. GRAHAM

Partner Gray & Rogers

Philadelphia

Sir:

Congratulations, TIME. Your piece on advertising says it all. It should be prescribed reading for every board room in America. WALKER Y. BROOKS Executive Vice President The McCarty Co. Los Angeles

Sir:

A thorough, objective investigation that should not only provide material for introspection by the advertisers, but also supply criteria and facts for examination by critics of their charges against the art of mass persuasion.

RAYMOND D. HERMAN Ensign, U.S.N. Navy Supply Corps School Athens, Ga.

Catholics Convene

Sir:

Thank you for your article on the Vatican Council [Oct. 5]. I am a member of a Presbyterian Church, and I have little knowledge concerning Catholicism, so I enjoyed learning about many phases of the Catholic world: past councils, Pope John XXIII and the present Vatican Council.

Your outlining of the topics which are to be brought before the council proved to be very interesting, and the background of these issues was especially helpful.

MILES McKEE

Grosse Pointe Park, Mich.

Sir:

Every religion class in my school is using this article when covering the council's main objectives and aspirations.

PETER SANTULLI St. Mary's High School Manhasset, N.Y.

Sir:

In answer to the letter from Betty Hanson [Oct. 12], Catholics believe that the Pope is infallible only when he speaks to us in his capacity as head of the church in regard to matters of faith and morals.