AMERICAN NOTES: Unselling the War

A 20-year-old Yale junior named Ira Nerken, inspired by CBS-TV's documentary "The Selling of the Pentagon," decided that if the military could use elaborate advertising and public relations to win support for the war, the same techniques could be used to "unsell" it. Nerken contacted David McCall, president of the New York advertising agency of LaRoche, McCaffrey and McCall, Inc., and a new, remarkably sophisticated form of antiwar protest began.

Art directors, copywriters and others from 35 different ad agencies contributed their talents to the effort, named UNSELL, which was backed by...