A Talk on Advertising – Herman Wouk

‘A Talk on Advertising’ is an attack on the Advertising Business. In this essay Herman Wouk expresses his bitter sense of displeasure on today’s surprisingly prospering business of advertising. He strongly pointed out that the field of advertising business has been degenerated into a ‘racket’ than a business and how it is grossly abusing even the noblest things like Language, Nature, Art and Youth. Wouk strongly deplores on how advertising business is corrupted with social evils and immoral values. 

Herman Wouk addressed to the gathering of advertising professionals just after the formal dinner speech of Marquis. He pointed out that all these professionals are finding their daily bread in this advertising business and tried to entreat them to redeem this strange, bittersweet miracle of their lives by giving up the advertising business at once.  He boldly states that the professionals of advertising business are not entitled to enjoy the wealth that has been earned (by them) through their advertising business.

A shoemaker makes shoes for his bread. A singer sings for her supper. A capitalist leads a large enterprise. A pilot flies, a coal-miner digs, a sailor moves things, a minister preaches, an author tells stories, a laundryman washes, an auto-worker makes cars, a painter makes pictures, a street-car conductor moves people, a stenographer writes down words, a lumberjack saws and a tailor sews. The people appreciate their services and cheerfully feed them for their skilled craft. But what does an advertising man do?  

The advertising men induce human beings to want things that they do not want. They create unnatural desire for unnecessary and undesirable things among the people. They create ‘want’ where ‘want’ does not exist. They induce people to use more things than they naturally desire. The more useless and undesirable the article is; the greater effort of advertisement is needed to dispose of it.

People naturally crave for meat and so the advertising of meat is on a negligible scale. Nobody is born craving tobacco. Therefore, tobacco is the largest item of expense in its distribution. The advertising people thrive richly in the service of utterly useless commodities like tobacco, underarm pastes, soaps and whisky. Hence, both producers of undesired things and the people of advertising business share the immoral haul. 

Advertising is unproductive and wasteful. Its evils are still more worse. Advertising destroys everything that is good and beautiful in this land. It has tarnished creation. The advertising people have destroyed the purity of Love, the beauty of Nature, Art, Language and Youth in the harness of commerce.

The advertising people ill-use the language in the service of advertising. They make the language so cheap that they would begin to think of it as a lie. 

God has created this wonderful land. The advertising people have turned ‘Nature’ into a painted hag, crying ‘come buy’. Artistic inspiration is misutilised. The beautiful young girls are used as models for lying. This is sheer misuse and vandalism. They sell everything by the falsehood of advertising business. 

An artist has the privileges of the court fool. Advertising evades truth for gain. They spoil everything that is fair for sheer greed of earning money. It is certainly not a decent work. At the end, Herman Wouk apologises for attacking the advertising business and wishes and expects his efforts will be successful if anyone of them repents and leaves the advertising industry.

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