scenery and are interested in it. Others can take it or leave it. There are times when most people would rather look at posters than scenery.’ The Roadside Business Association has said, ‘We do not believe that everyone is for beauty in all things.’ On a Sunday morning in 1958, vigilantes sawed down seven billboards along a highway in New Mexico. Citizens of surrounding areas expressed support for them. One telephone call complained that the vigilantes had not cut down enough billboards, and another that they had frustrated the plan of a large group of citizens who had scheduled a mass burning of billboards for later in the month. The vigilantes were never arrested. In 1961 the Quebec government sent hundreds of men with axes to chop down billboards. In 1963 the head of the New York State Thruway Authority knocked down 53 billboards in a dawn raid; he was sick of legal bickering. But in June 1982, a judge in Oregon overturned an ordinance that required the removal of billboards on the ground that it was a denial of free speech. The battle goes on. Can advertising sell bad products? It is often charged that advertising can persuade people to buy inferior products. So it can – once. But the consumer perceives that the product is inferior and never buys it again. This causes grave financial loss to the manufacturer, whose profits come from repeat purchases. The best way to increase the sale of a product is to improve the product. This is particularly true of food products; the consumer is amazingly quick to notice an improvement in taste and buy the product more often. I have always been irritated by the lack of interest brand managers take in improving their products. One client warned me, ‘You are too prone to criticize our products. We could find it easier to accept criticism of our wives.’ Not enough information Do you think advertising gives you enough information about products? I don’t. Recently, I smashed my car beyond repair and had to buy a new one. For six months I read all the car ads in search of information. All I found was fatuous slogans and flatulent generalities. Car manufacturers assume