1 7 Is America still top nation? The hare and the tortoises oughly half of all the advertising in the world is in the United R States, and American agencies are paramount in the rest of the world. In West Germany, nine of the top agencies are American. In the United Kingdom and Holland, seven of the top ten. In Canada and Italy, six of the top ten. In 1977 Philip Kleinman, a British observer of the advertising scene, wrote that ‘all over the world, admen look to Madison 1 Avenue as Moslems look to Mecca.’ But things are changing. Alexander Kroll, the president of Young & Rubicam, recently said that ‘the best of foreign advertising seems brasher, fresher and more outrageous than ours’. Remember Aesop’s fable of the Hare and the Tortoise? Britain The differences between British and American advertising reflect differences in national characteristics. If you question whether those differences are big enough to signify, consider the fact that, on an average Sunday, 42 per cent of Americans go to church, while only 3 per cent go in England. British commercials tend to be less direct, less competitive, more subtle, more nostalgic, funnier and more entertaining. Techniques which work well in the United States – like talking heads and slice-of-life are seldom used in Britain. The London agencies produce relatively far-out, trendy commercials. After spending four years in London, my partner Bill Taylor wrote, ‘There seems to be a realization in England that maybe, just maybe, the product being sold is not the most important thing in the consumer’s mind. The decision as to which dishwashing