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The Firehouse Salon
Exploring big ideas through honest conversations to share insights for those who want to change the world. Inspired by the maverick spirit of 1960s adman Howard Luck Gossage, we bring diverse minds together to discuss not just how to make things, but make things that work. Join us as curious, iconoclastic, and obvious ideas collide at the Salon. Accompanies our BBC Radio 4 show 'The Socrates of San Francisco' - check it out on BBC sounds.
The Firehouse Salon
Episode 12 - Dear Miss Afflerbach
"This is a story about an ad. It also says a good many implicit things about the ad-reading public...
You can take a look at the ad here
The ad is question sang the praises of a certain make of shirt, and it appeared in the New Yorker. In order to demonstrate the excellence of the shirtmaker's workmanship, a handkerchief-sized piece of shirting mysteriously equipped with buttonhole and pocket was offered free to readers who would write in and say what they thought the thing was for. Suddenly the "Shirtkerchief" was famous and Miss Afflerbach was deluged with mail. At last count, 11,342 people had written in - a record-breaking response in The New Yorker's experience..."
Howard Luck Gossage, 1960
This podcast episode documents that marvel.