AND THERE is another difference. Miss Laski has presumably watched
some advertising magazines; has she ever heard in them a word of criticism of the products? Whereas she can see for herself that in a supplement, such as the one in the Spectator this week, the performers—the re- viewers—are free to comment adversely, if they so wish, on the books advertised. It is true that no newspaper or periodical would care to boast that it has an absolutely unsullied record in the matter of suppijements; some subjects—travel, for one—are hard to do without puffery, or at least the risk that the article will appear to be puffery. But there is a substantial difference, I would sug- gest, between supplements which allow writers free expression of their opinions and those in which the writers are simply instructed what they must say to please the advertiser.
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