to buy a house The responsibility that falls on the shoulders of those who hope to manage this task is a formidable one. At one end of the scale advertising can be vulgar, misleading, and inflationary; at the other, honest, interesting, and truly informative. It is a sizeable marketing dilemma, underlined by the conditions of material plenty today, to decide between these opposites to strike a balance which, while perhaps not immediately yielding such dramatic sales results, will secure longterm advantages and sustained public goodwill. The fact that the advertising business itself which includes the everincreasing number of accredited agencies, the growing number of advertising departments in businesses, and the powerful communications media such as commercial T.V. which are developing today accounts for the expenditure of many millions of pounds and billions of dollars, increases management's responsibility for using this potent instrument intelligently and in the public interest. One thing is certain. The art (or craft) of advertising is an expertise and management will be wise to leave its practice in the hands of those who understand and are trained in it. Precisely because advertising touches everybody at some point or other, the work of the advertising manager or agent is often ruined by the wellmeant but confusing interference of top management who, having taken a policy decision to advertise and because this decision bears on factors other than marketing ones it must be accepted as a top manage ment responsibility should then leave the implementation ',!' to the experts. « A somewhat facile but neardescriptive phrase 'The Face of the Firm' v coined not long ago to produce the theme of an exhibition in London staged by the lively Design and Industries Association. This display sought to demonstrate how such things as print, display and production material, packaging, letterheads, invoices, delivery vans, and trade marks can, if intelligently integrated and coordinated, project the character of an enterprise in such a way as to make it readily recognizable by the public and thus form a favourable public opinion about it. Such projection, if it is necessary at all, needs to go much further; it should take care of items ranging from the design of a factory or office block to the personality and manners of the girl who answers the telephone. Ever since public relations became a business preoccupation, a definition of this elusive operation has been sought which would enlighten a slightly bemused public who know any rate that the P.R.O. has come to stay. A definition comes from the Institute of Public Relations : 'The deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and its public'; and while this may sound a shade artless, it goes some way towards establishing what public relations is all about, for by its very ambiguity it proves how easily a public relations operation can be adjusted to suit about every human circumstance. homemoney to purchasehow