Advertising: The Mammoth Mirror

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Bogeymen Three. Partly because they are insecure and partly because, like most men dealing in words and ideas, they tend toward introspection, admen wear the most conspicuous hair shirt in all of U.S. business. A recent survey of admen published in Advertising Age revealed that only 8% of those polled considered their fellow admen to be "honest." And because they doubt themselves, the admen overreact to any criticism of their industry —however casual, ill-informed or unimportant. This has caused John Crichton, president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, to tartly and correctly chide his fellows for spending too much time "staring into the mirror to count the pimples, broken veins and wattles on the serene, handsome and competent face we hope to present to the public."

For several years, admen have been fretting over the attacks of fashionable critics such as Author Vance (The Hidden Persuaders) Packard, one of the nation's most talented self-advertisers, who pipes the old tune that advertising twists truth and debases public taste. Most recently, Madison Avenue's fears have focused on an unlikely trio of bogeymen whom the admen accuse of being in conspiracy to abolish the advertising industry. Bogeyman No. 1 is Presidential Assistant Arthur Schlesinger, who—in one sentence of a 23-page tract published in 1960—tossed out an ill-considered suggestion that perhaps advertising should be taxed. No. 2 is U.S. Ambassador to India John Kenneth Galbraith, who in The Affluent Society argued that advertising tempts people to squander on "unneeded" possessions money that would be better spent on public works. No. 3 is British Historian Arnold Toynbee, who believes that the stimulation of personal consumption through advertising is un-Christian ("I cannot think of any circumstance in which advertising would not be an evil"), and last year advanced the ridiculous proposition: "The destiny of our Western civilization turns on the issue of our struggle with all that Madison Avenue stands for more than it turns on the issue of our struggle with Communism."

The Non-Crusade. In their outrage at such attacks, the admen conjure up a threat to their industry that does not exist. There is no evidence that the New Frontier is about to launch a crusade against admen. Neither Schlesinger nor Galbraith carries any great weight in Washington economic councils these days. The Treasury says flatly that it is not considering any special tax on advertising, and Bobby Kennedy's main visible concern with advertising lies in its effects on the sales of his new book.

For the most part, the admen's defense against their critics consists of pointing out advertising's vital role in the U.S. economy. Beyond argument, advertising does induce the public to buy products that are not "needed"—since it can be said that people really do not "need" much more than a cave, a knife and a bow and arrow. But by informing people of the availability of new or improved products, advertising helps to create mass demand—which in turn makes possible mass production, mass employment and greater physical well-being than ordinary men have ever before known.