Ads only a tool – but a potent one

The only way to answer Sean Brierley’s question (MW December 6) is to consider whether advertising can help during a recession. The answer for many advertisers is “yes”.

Of course, not all sectors face similar problems and this time around the conventional harbingers of recession – consumer expenditure and unemployment – are less prevalent.

The simple truth is that we live in a competitive world, the consequence of which is consumer benefit. I accept that delivering for shareholders in both the long and short term is our corporate responsibility, but fighting for competitive edge is essential.

The temptation is to cut costs, sit out the recession and assume normal business can be resumed at a later date. But that’s nonsense. If you have competitive advantage at a time when consumer expenditure remains robust, now is the time to use it and cement consumer loyalties that, in a time of economic abundance, you can only dream about.

Advertising is only a tool that should be considered positively as a means of minimising short-term problems and maximising long-term benefit. To do it against the trend is brave but that is how reputations are made and businesses transformed. Remember Oscar Wilde said “the majority is always wrong but the minority may sometimes be right”.

Sir George Bull

Chairman, J Sainsbury

London EC1