Sierra Club Howard Gossage, the most articulate rebel in the advertising business, held that advertising was too valuable an instrument to waste on commercial products. He believed that it justified its existence only when it was used for social purposes. One of his advertisements for the Sierra Club, opposing a hydroelectric project in Grand Canyon, pulled 3,000 applications for membership at $14 each. To raise money for the United Negro College Fund, I had this letter put on every seat in the commuter trains leaving Grand Central Station for the affluent suburbs. It produced $26,000 in a single evening. The idea came from Bill Phillips, later Chairman of Ogilvy & Mather. Click here for hi-res image.