Most advertising, by playing it safe, by never sticking its neck out, is sort of an eyeless mask that effectively prevents people behind it from talking to people in front of or from even seeing them.
The audience remains out of contact; you never know whether you got through to them or not, or whether they applauded, booed, or simply looked the other way.
The cash register is no substitute for this sort of response, for, as we know, many other elements enter into making a cash regıster ring.
Until advertising really believes that there is someone out there and talks to them - not in advertisingese, but in direct, well-formed English - we will never develop the personal responsibility toward our audience, and ourselves, that even a ninth-rate tap dancer has.
The audience is our first responsibility, even before the client, for if we cannot involve them, what good will it do him?
—Howard Gossage, The Book of Gossage (pg 17)