How They Would Work
The general aim of the agency should be 10 convey in advertisements the true experience of different products, speaking in the 'language appropriate to each medium, be it the Times or Tit-Bits.
Advertising probably attracts few geniuses but rather more than its share of intelligent young men and women. They join the agencies because the pay is good; promotion is by merit rather than seniority; there is considerable equality between the sexes; there is room for non-organisation men; and the agencies are usually small enough for bright newcomers quickly to make visible contributions to their work. All these things help to make advertising more interesting, rewarding and stimulating for the ambitious graduate or artist than many other office jobs. One of the hack agency jokes is that advertising would be perfect if it wasn't for the clients—and although this is a joke I think it has implications. Successful advertising people must be salesmen, and salesmanship, unfor- tunately for Britain, is both socially and intcl• lectually despised. What worries the salesmen who work for agencies is not their calling itself but the fact that they sometimes have to waste their talents on products they only half believe in or which are of doubtful value. These men would do better work for clients whose products they really respected, and many of them would be interested in working for a consumer agency.
But would any advertiser look at a consumer agency? Very many managing directors know in their own minds that the product or service they sell is the best possible one of its kind; many more are convinced that they provide extremely good value for money. With no reason to be ashamed of their occupations these men do not Welcome criticism—who does?—particularly when it is ill-informed, prejudiced, bad-tempered or irrelevant, like much comment on advertising. But they are businessmen. If they think the con- sumer agency is a holier-than-thou organisation which knows little about the realities of selling and marketing, they will ignore it; if they see it as a group of professional ad-men offering ex- ceptional talent in the service of exceptional products, I have a hunch that some of them would try it.
Previous page
