TIME

November 10, 1952 12:00 AM GMT-5

Said the headline on a two-page ad in The New Yorker last week: I AM SENDING MY SON TO GROTON WITH THE MONEY I HAVE SAVED DRIVING AUSTINS. The ad quoted a “private letter from [an] anonymous diplomat . . . who used to ornament the Diplomatic Corps,” and pictured a man in riding boots, presumably the anonymous diplomat, with 1) a woman, 2) a boy (presumably the lucky Grottie) and 3) a pair of Austin cars.

This neat welding of snob appeal on to a cheap car was achieved by Manhattan Adman David Ogilvy, who had also dreamed up the eye patch for the much-copied “man in the Hathaway shirt” (TIME, June 23). No shy huckster, British-born Ogilvy appeared several months ago as the male model in his ads for Helena Rubinstein cosmetics (see cut). But at least one reader did not approve of his latest effort. When he saw the Austin ad, the Rev. John Crocker, headmaster of Groton (tuition and residence: $1,750), said: “It’s all news to me … I certainly don’t approve … It seems to me to be unfair publicity.” The New York Herald Tribune carried Ogilvy’s idea to its logical conclusion: “Can’t you just picture the diplomat going through life turning in his car for a motor-scoot and sending Junior to Harvard? Then a switch to a bike and away goes daughter to finishing school.”

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