Advertising
Bottom Dropping Out
By MARGHANITA LASKI 'A CONSUMER demand which owes its origin to artificial stimulation . . . is an unsure foundation for prosperity. It might give way.' Thus The Times, summarising in a leader one of the main arguments of Professor Galbraith's book The Affluent Society. The possibility of mass cessation of response to ads is one that must fascinate anyone obsessed with the subject. Few vices are easier relinquished than addiction to conspicuous display, and if the shift is usually made not to non-attachment but to inconspicuous display, this, though just as competitive, is of very little use to the advertisers. One must then applaud the courage, while doubting the wisdom, of any advertiser who takes the risk of blowing the gaff on the whole breathy bubble.
A young man in a deer-stalker lies out on a moor under the shadow of a gigantic antler. He is brooding on the effects of the magazine the Queen on his wife Caroline, which, he tells us, are such as to drive him raving mad. Because the Queen said so, Caroline has redecorated the bathroom so as to cause maximum inconvenience, burst out into a rash of tomato red, needs to buy two of everything for her wardrobe CI see their plan,' he says darkly—was the original word plot?), took him to St. Tropez and is considering crossing the Atlantic. Only a racing tip, picked up from the Queen. enables him still to be solvent. He sees nothing for it, he says, but to divorce Caroline or to take out a subscription to the Queen.
One can, of course, overdo naive incredulity, but could this possibly provide anyone with an attractive model for reader-identification? Manipulation by magazine should surely remain one of those dumb, dark, unconscious processes once one passes beyond the Gugnunc stage, and little logic is needed for a third possibility to loom, that of putting the Queen right out of their lives and moving up into circles where merit is acquired by discussing the Tynan-Ionesco con- troversy.
The possibility that machines will one day be able to create art seems footling besides the sen- sibilities already displayed by 'spell-binding Primitif,' a perfume 'dreamed up' by Max Factor : '—it used to be difficult to find a perfume really to express your own personality. Not any more —Printitif has a most extraordinary gift for em- phasising the special characteristics of every woman. By some sorcery those qualities are selected in wearing so that the one that is just right for you predominates.' There would seem to be the germ of a Spectator competition here. What special characteristics would Primitif choose to emphasise in the cases of Mrs. Bessie Braddock, Dr. Edith Summerskill, Lady Violet Bonham Carter, Miss Diana Dors and Mrs. Dale?
Do you know what a Goodwill Gift is? It is what today's leaders in Commerce and. Industry give to each other to create that personal con- fidence and esteem from which good business so often stems. Ronson Goodwill Gifts are often given in this way and can be specially engraved. I suppose that when the Goodwill Gifts are suc- cessful, they can go down on the expense account?
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