that you are not interested in facts. Indeed, their advertising is not aimed at consumers. Its purpose is to win an ovation when it is projected on the screen at hoopla conventions of dealers. Show-biz commercials have that effect. Sober, factual advertising does not. If their engineering was as incompetent as their advertising, their cars would not run ten miles without a breakdown. When I advertised Rolls-Royce, I gave the facts – no hot air, no adjectives. Later, my partner Hank Bernhard used equally factual advertising for Mercedes. In every case sales went up dramatically – on peppercorn budgets. I have written factual advertising for a bank, for gasoline, for a stockbroker, margarine, foreign travel and many other products. It always sells better than empty advertising. Before I started writing advertisements, I spent three years selling Aga cooking stoves to Scottish housewives, door to door. All I did was give my customers the facts. It took me 40 minutes to make a sale; about 3,000 words. If the people who write Detroit advertising had started their careers as door-to-door salesmen, you and I would be able to find the facts we need in their advertisements. Summary 1 Whether economists are right or wrong in proclaiming that advertising is an ‘economic’ waste, manufacturers do not regard it as a commercial waste. 2 Apart from political advertising, which is flagrantly dishonest, advertising is now far more honest than consumers realize. 3 The world would be a safer, prettier place without billboards. 4 The majority of campaigns fail to give consumers enough information. 1 Keep buggering on. 2 Automobile manufacturers spend 1 per cent of their revenue on advertising. Appliance