Brand X
Sir: Paul Johnson (2 July) may be justified in taking a swipe at people who are snooty about advertising, but he confuses advertising with endorsement.
If a man who is normally known for his work in the theatre suddenly accepts payment for either explicitly or implicitly endorsing a particular brand of washing machine one is bound to question how enthusiastic he really is about the brand with which he has identified himself. If he cares not at all (and this is probably the most usual answer) then he has taken payment for entering into a kind of fraud, and this will inevitably reflect on any other work he does. If he is truly enthusiastic about a particular brand of washing machine then he should provide his testimonial free of charge.
The financially induced endorsement of a product cannot reasonably be compared with TV criticism.
T.M.H. Fawcett
153, Hartswood Road, London W12
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