Norman Rockwell - Doctor and Boy Looking at Thermometer. 1954

After a recent visit to the doctor, he sent me a letter summarising how things stood.

He began with a few notes on the basic medical facts.

‘Jim Carroll is 61 and reasonably fit. He is 5 foot 11 and weighs 220 pounds. Blood group A+. Non-smoker.’

The report continued with various observations about my gammy leg. And then it added a statement that caught my eye.

‘Jim is a very pleasant man.’

I looked up from the breakfast table and called my wife over.

‘Listen to this. According to my doctor’s assessment, ‘Jim is a very pleasant man.’ That’s a scientific fact, indisputable, an objective truth. It’s ‘exactly medically accurate’. It must be in my DNA or something. I am a very pleasant man.’

I’m not sure my wife was impressed.

I reflected that it would be nice to work in a profession where opinions carry such weight; where the audience is predisposed to accept them as fact.

Long gone are the days when ad agencies’ perspectives on brands, consumers and communication were taken as definitive. Our analyses are often greeted with weary scepticism. Our proposals tend to be taken with a pinch of salt.

And so we are obliged to construct compelling arguments, to substantiate and exemplify. We must coax and convince, charm and seduce.

We are in the persuasion business. The persuasion starts with bringing our colleagues onside. Then we must persuade out clients. And finally we must persuade consumers.

So being ‘very pleasant’ can come in handy.

'Now I'd be the last to deny,
That I'm just an average guy.
And don't you know, each little bird in the sky
Is just a little bit freer than I.
Ordinary Joe, people say you’re just a lazy so and so.
What they think is real,
Is nothing but an animated puppet show.
So don’t let time and space confuse you,
Don’t let name and form abuse you.
Let Big Joe Williams blues you.
In the light of the sun you can see how they run.
I’ve seen a sparrow get high,
And waste his time in the sky.
And don't you know,
He thinks it’s easy to fly,
He’s just little bit freer than I.’

Terry Callier, ‘Ordinary Joe'

No. 540