Stock Character

Tycoon Robert Ralph Young, who takes as much pleasure in writing his own advertisements as in gobbling up more trackage, got a blow last week where it hurt. A Manhattan adman named Lawrence Fertig, who writes once a week for the New York World-Telegram financial page, criticized Bob Young’s latest ad (“Let’s Wake Up Rip Van Winkle”).

Wrote Fertig: “. . . This advertisement was illustrated by a Gargantuan, vicious-looking creature, dressed in formal coat, silk hat, wing collar and white vest adorned by a huge gold chain . . . supposed to represent ‘old line management.’ It is a replica of the stock character employed by Communists to represent Capital. … It tells the American public that everyone who manages our railroads (and, by association of ideas, all owners of capital) is cruel, lazy and indecent … pariahs feeding off the poor laboring man. Such a concept, as it gains ground in the mass mind, allows for no exceptions. Ironically enough, it finally comes to the point where even Mr. Young, who is a prominent capitalist, becomes associated in the public mind with the rapacious figure he created.”