Accountability - the flaming sword

Argues for the benefits, and the possibility, of making advertising genuinely accountable. The article summarises the theme of the author's new book, 'Accountable Advertising' (Admap Publications, 1997).

Accountability - the flaming sword

Simon Broadbent's Eden. If we returned to an accountable existence, finance and creative people could work profitably together

Simon Broadbent

‘He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way.’

In Claude Hopkins’ days in Eden (the 1920s), there was no doubt about the purpose of advertising: ‘its principles are the principles of salesmanship’. Nor about its evaluation: ‘through keyed advertising, by coupons ... where direct returns are impossible we compare one town with another’. Nor about the confidence placed in it:...

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