Murder Must Advertise

At last, I’ve read a book for the Vintage Mystery challenge: Dorothy Sayers’ Murder Must Advertise (1933). Although it was the BBC television series that inspired me, I selected this book in the Harriet Vane/Lord Peter Wimsey series because it’s set in an advertising agency, where Wimsey goes undercover, posing as Mr. Death Bredon, to solve a murder mystery.

I was intending to read Murder Must Advertise as a vintage mystery, yet it was the ad agency part that stuck with me — I teach in a department of advertising and public relations, so every time I read one of the narrator’s long monologues on the industry, I kept thinking that I wanted to ask my colleagues about it. So — I did, and I’m sharing their remarks with you.

I sent quotes from the book to two colleagues who responded on behalf of advertising people everywhere. Here’s the first:

Quote #1: On working in an ad agency
“Mr. Bredon had been a week with Pym’s Publicity, and had learnt a number of things. He learned the average number of words that can be crammed into four inches of copy;..that the word ‘pure’ was dangerous, because, if lightly used, it laid the client open to prosecution by the Government inspectors, whereas the words ‘highest quality,’ ‘finest ingredients,’ ‘packed under the best conditions’ had no legal meaning…; …that the great aim and object of the studio artist was to crowd the copy out of the advertisement and that, conversely, the copy-writer was a designing villain whose ambition was to cram the space with verbiage and leave no reoom for the sketch; … and further, that all departments alike united in hatred of the client….

Response: Dr. Elli Lester Roushanzamir

Dorothy Sayers, who apparently worked in advertising herself, description of the ad shop is spot-on. Mr. Bredon’s experience of the fierce competition (call it hatred) between the art and copy directors is as true today as in early 20th century. Use of the words “pure” or “cure” still have legal meanings and are therefore forbidden. But all the other superlatives may be and are used with abandon; it’s called puffery and it hides a multitude of sins. Clients are still ill behaved young children, clamoring for treats and requiring a swift swat if (nowadays) behind closed doors. As a copywriter myself I say damnation to the art, now’s the time to publish as many words as possible of my own personal literary masterpiece.

Quote #2: On advertising’s influence
The work that engaged Bredon… “wafted him into a sphere of dim platonic archetypes, bearing a scarcely recognizable relationship to anything in the living world. Here those strange entities, the Thrifty Housewife, the Man of Discrimination, the Keen Buyer and the Good Judge, for ever young, for ever handsome, for ever virtuous, economical and inquisitive, moved to and fro upon their complicated orbits, comparing prices and values, making tests of purity, asking indiscreet questions aobut each others ailments, household expenses, bed-springs, shaving cream, diet, laundry work and books, perpetually spendign to save and saving to spend, cutting out coupons and collecting cartons, surprising husbands with margarine and wives with patent washers and vacuum cleaners, occupied from morning to night in washing, cooking, dusting, filing, saving their children from germs, their complexions from wind and weather, their teeth from decay and their stomachs from indigestion, and yet adding so many hours to th eday by labour-saving appliances that they had always leisure for visiting the talkies, sprawling on the beach to picnic….

Response: Dr. Peggy Kreshel

This certainly was the advertising of that post-Depression era—populated with archetypes and over-populated with fear appeals. Germs. Wrinkles. Tooth Decay. And, the worst: halitosis! (By the way, chronic halitosis was introduced by Listerine in the mid-20s. Prior to becoming a mouthwash, it had been marketed as a surgical antiseptic, a floor cleaner — in a somewhat different form I would hope!, and a cure for gonorrhea.)

And here we have the early rendition of what Friedan would later identify as “the problem with no name.” The thing that is especially noteworthy is that at this historical moment we were actually making advertising claims so that “economic man” (economics of course always talked about him even as women were recognized to be the primary consumers) could make wise decisions. Today, advertising “talks” primarily through images with nary a recognizable claim. Still, those images continue to “[bear] a scarcely recognizable relationship to anything in the living world.”

And, my review:
First of all, I have to point out that according to my experts, Sayers’ remarks on the advertising industry appear to have been spot on, which makes Wimsey’s visit to the agecy a bit more meaningful, at least to me. As for the mystery, it’s somewhat convoluted and a bit awkward because you’re reading for a while before you’re told that Bredon is actually Wimsey, and still a while longer before you understand what the mystery is actually about. Not only that, but Harriet Vane, who’s definitely my favorite Sayers character, is no where to be found. Expert Elli did warn me that this book isn’t a good place for non-Sayers aficionados to jump in, and she’s right. But if you’re into advertising, or for that matter if you hate it, you might enjoy this book anyway.

Thanks to Peggy and Elli for responding to my queries… and for being faithful readers of How Mysterious!

Book #1 in the Vintage Mystery Challenge