Interview: The Ecological Food Society

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ILLUSTRATION: ECOLOGICAL FOOD SOCIETY
The DDT-less apple. Yours for 9 cents, from the Ecological Food Society's full page ad.

During the past year, a number of advertisements for the Ecological Food Society and its “DDT-less apple” have appeared in many of the country’s leading magazines. If you’ve seen the ad, chances are you wondered—as we wondered — if the organization was on the level or if it was just a cover for someone out to capitalize on the “organic” food fad. 

We became doubly intrigued when Steve Brown, president of Schiff-Brown and Co. (the New York ad agency behind EFS) bitterly attacked the advertising industry for “the merciless way in which it takes advantage of the consumer.” In this and later assults on Madison Avenue, Brown charged that “all advertising is basically dishonest because its nature is involved in salesmanship and salesmanship introduces irrelevant, emotional considerations into what should be purely factual decisions. It may not be legally dishonest when ad agencies SELL any and everything to absolute maximum effect, but it is often morally dishonest.” 

When asked how he (president of an advertising agency) could remain in a profession for which he has such low regard, Brown answered, “I’m not posing as a saint but I do feel that I can best battle advertising’s hypocritical hard sell from the inside. Don’t forget that I, too, know how to SELL, which puts me in a good position to sell more natural ways of living. This can be a powerful lever with which to move legislators and manufacturers toward more ecologically sound practices.” 

  • Published on Jan 1, 1972
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