Nearly every house brochure for an advertising (the agency formerly known as Joslin Shaw) agency or public relations company that I've read drones on about the agency's philosophy. Yet as someone who studied philosophy at university, I fail to understand why.

A good tailor, wine merchant or dentist won't bore you with his or her philosophy. But that's not to say that they don't have one. Like me, I'm sure that you just want them to cut you a good suit, sell you a decent wine and fix your teeth. Naturally, they need to be good at their job and offer considerable experience and sound advice. You probably like them to make a reasonable profit and be pleasant to do business with. But not sell you a bogus ideology in order to charge inflated prices.

In general, you'll find that we talk plain, sensible English. Jargon is used sparingly, for several reasons, not least of which is because we find using it embarrassing and counter productive.

Whilst branding, market positioning and awareness are important Ð the banks won't exchange them for cash, nor are they accepted in the best restaurants.

We produce ads to sell our clients' goods and services. Although we have a reputation for demanding high creative standards, an ad that doesn't sell isn't creative.

Not Professionals
Many of our rivals hark on about their professionalism. We don't. We're not professionals! Advertising and public relations are not professions, they're crafts. Ones that require application, hardwork and not a little skill. At Avocado Media we don't sit on pointless committees or take spurious exams leading to ersatz qualifications.

Semi Literate
Many of our most successful ads contain a lot of copy. That's because they are written by skilled wordsmiths with something interesting to say. Don't be fooled by semi-literate designers who claim that people don't read copy.

Press advertisements are surrounded by articles that are many times longer than the text of the ads. Research shows that most articles are better read than than the adverts. As the famed copywriter Howard Gossage once said: "People don't read ads. People read what interests them. And sometimes it's an ad." The fact that you are still reading this proves the point that some 350 words of copy are not beyond the normal human attention span.

Many observers will describe a "great" ad (particularly when referring to a TV or radio commercial), but then fail to recall the name of the advertiser. Even worse, they will often attribute it to a rival brand.

Press advertising is not simply about pretty pictures and clever headlines. Having something interesting to say and writing a persuasive sales message is just the beginning of the story. Many typographers these days are primarily concerned with creating trendy designs, with little regard to how easy the message is to read. The first and last rule of typography is readability. Which means that (and I apologise in advance for the jargon), you will read a lot of our ads before you see: reversed type, sans serif type faces, interminably long line lengths, illegible fonts, ridiculous point sizes, or paragraphs without leading.

Yet even brilliant ads can only fulfil their true promise if delivered in the right medium. Avocado Media has a reputation for planning and buying media without equal. We spend a budget as if it were our own. It's not that we're mean for the sake of being mean. But you'd never guess.

I hope we can do business.

George Shaw
Managing Director

Head Office
10 Knowle Cottages
Wadhurst Road
Frant
East Sussex TN3 9EJ

T: +44 (0)1892 750851
M: +44 (0)7860 695555

Email: geo@avocadomedia.co.uk

London Office
The Windsor Centre
Windsor Street
London N1 8QG

T: +44 (0) 20 7226 9177
F: +44 (0) 20 7359 6351