Advertising Age, September 12, 1983
Posted by Eli on September 15th, 2009
Explanation: The word “collateral” has a special meaning in the advertising agency world. To quote from a source on Google: “Collateral is the collection of media used to support sales of a product or service. It differs from advertising in that it is used later in the sales cycle. Common examples include: sales brochures and other printed product information, posters and signs, visual aids in sales presentations, web content, sales scripts and demonstration scripts.”
So this adman, or as we would call him today, Madman, is looking for a loan and he has brought along his “collateral”. Yes, I agree it’s an awful pun, but I thought it worked as a gag, and apparently so did the editors at Advertising Age back in 1983.
End of Lesson Number 1 in today’s Advertising 101 class.