Worried Ad Men

Some earnest
men in the advertising business are concerned about the derogatory
image of their profession that has been created in the public mind and
quietly are running it up on the flagpole to see who salutes.

As
they see it, the constant references to the Madison Avenue boys as
polite villains, enforcing conformity on people through fear and
repetition has reached an alarming point.

They feel that even
greater damage can be done potentially by the rash of current books
depicting advertising and public relations men as ruthless,
double-crossing, three Martini boys who will stop at nothing to sell a
bill of goods.

"EXECUTIVE SUITE," the novel and later the
movie started the trend and now the shelves are loaded with
disillusioning books about life and love in the upper echelons of
public opinion molding.

Paul Pickrel, Harper’s book reviewer,
this month does a long specialty job on what he calls business novels,
mostly written by men who work or have worked in these fields of
calculated enlightenment.

Many will find irony in the fact that the advertising business now finds itself in need of public relations.

NO QUESTION about it, our friends south of the border have a slightly different approach to law enforcement than we do.

Al
Meyers was standing on a Tijuana sidewalk, waiting for a friend, when a
gendarme came by checking the parked cars. Observing the violation sign
on a parking meter he efficiently removed the license plates from the
offending car.

Fascinated, Al asked how come.

"We do
this just to Mexican cars," the officer explained. "Americans pay their
fines but some of our people don’t co-operate —  so we make sure."

KIDS’ NOSES
In summer they came dry,
Well-tanned and cunning;
But this winter, while still cute,
Some came running.
– HERB OXSTEIN

LAST CHRISTMAS
some bank employees held a party in the Pen and Quill restaurant in
Manhattan Beach and as a gag presented their boss with a Federal
Reserve canvass bag filled with rocks and paper, Owner Bob Reuben found
it after they’d departed and took it to the office. Now it’s gone.
Thieves who broke into the place a few nights ago took only the bag,
apparently in the belief they had hit the jackpot, and some whisky.

SPEAKING OF Christmas, Miss Caroline Tupper,
a schoolteacher here, is still wondering about a card she received last
December. Postmarked Los Angeles and printed in Old English letters, it
stated, "Buckingham Palace. HerBrittanica Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
and His Royal Highness Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince
Charles and Princess Anne and their friend Mr. George Atkinson wish you
a very merry Christmas."

She has no idea who George is.

QUOTE & UNQUOTE — A
man complaining about a traffic ticket was overheard saying, "All I
know is that I never heard an L.A. cop say, ‘It’s my duty to advise you
that anything you say may be used against you’" . . . The Post this
week salutes its copy editor, Harley P. Cook, retiring after 45 years,
with this tribute: "He made life miserable for the ambiguous, the
inaccurate and the profane."

AROUND TOWN — Geologists
will complete a searching study in a few days of what could be a
world-shaking new source of water in arid areas . . . Frank L. (Lefty)
James, crime-crushing detective of another day, is in Queen Angels
Hospital. Ticker acting up . . . Some wag put Hilton hotel matchbooks
in the lobby ashtrays of the Town House; pardon me, Sheraton West . . .
Anyone else notice that Superior JudgeEvelle J. Younger recommended to
the Department of Motor Vehicles that the left-turn law, which he
describes as "inadequate and confusing," be clarified? Seems to me some
other guy had the same idea.

Actually, this ad ran on the same page as the feature on alcoholism. The guys at the Mirror-News really had a sense of humor.