How to Be Attuned

In the ad agencies along Manhattan's Madison Avenue, the true test of a huckster's sincerity is the way he speaks the language. But it is not the English language as most people know it: it is the adman's jargon, which changes as fast as a sponsor's mind when the Hooperating slumps. An adman who wants to keep "with it" must change his vocabulary almost every week. Otherwise, he simply will not be considered an "acute citizen"; he just won't be "attuned." Last week the acute citizen had some sharp new phrases:

The office, once known as the "shop," is now the "foundry," "store" or "delicatessen." An adman attends "brainstorm sessions" instead of meetings; there, ideas are "pressure cooked," "housebroken," or merely "kicked around." And if no single idea is "bought"--that is, if nobody "gets any nourishment from it"--chances are a bunch of ideas will be "Burbanked," i.e., combined into a hybrid. At such high-level "spitballing sessions" it may be advisable to "pitch up a few mashie shots to see how close we are to the green." Then, having made sure that the scheme has sufficient "protein," i.e., is a good idea, the proper people can be "bulletined" and the deal "teamworked" through.

Any successful adman nowadays must "get into the field"--even if it is only on a "one-man survey"--to "check the trade" and get an "on-the-ground approach" to the "big picture." That means, of course, both "sales-wise" and "production-wise." Then, having gotten a "fillin" (which is known in advertising circles as letting an outside dope in on the inside dope), he will be all set to "finalize his thinking" and "explode the market."

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