Illustration: Wilcox
I write in defence of the W-class trams. You know, the old green ones we grew up with. Many of our readers would remember going to school on them.
But this column is all about media and marketing and, in fact, this whole section of The Age on a Friday is devoted to that subject. Louise, who has always given such helpful advice on these matters is bemused as to why there should be a whole section about this industry. She still doesn't believe me when I tell her that Australia has the highest per capita spend on advertising in the world.
''What, more than America? It can't be true,'' she says.
''Well, it is,'' says Charlie and that's that.
The reason is that we are a competitive nation with a long history of shopping.
''Shopping? Guilty as charged,'' says Louise.
Look at the fortunes of the Myer family for instance. They made their name in Bendigo a century ago in the heart of the Victorian goldfields. Sidney Myer didn't discover gold - he didn't even dig it up. He just opened a shop and sold low-priced merchandise, including socks, to the gold-diggers. Nearly a century later they even sold the shop. It was in their blood.
The money spent on advertising has always helped oil the wheels of communications. After all, this paper would cost a whole lot more without the ads. And you couldn't listen to Neil Mitchell on 3AW without the ads. I'm not sure that Neil Mitchell really likes ads, but you have to eat.
But, as great as this $12 billion-a-year industry is, it is nothing compared with what is called ''below the line''. For the casual reader, ''below the line'' is the term used to describe everything else that tries to influence public opinion.
It is an industry as big again as advertising, and involves many worlds. One that is mighty powerful, even more so than the old ad in the paper, is public relations. I can see the editor over in the corner office getting nervous, so I'll move on.
How important is ''below the line'' and, in this case, PR? I was approached three weeks ago to take up arms in support of keeping the old W-class trams on the tracks. I said I couldn't help. In fact, there is no need as the government has decided these old carriages will stay. Thirty-seven of them have been restored and will continue to run. Not easy given that a fair part of them is made of wood and the inner workings aren't quite as sophisticated as your modern tram. But they are safe and a delight to ride on. We've even sent one as a gift to San Francisco, which has kept its famous old trams, though only 10 of them. Problem solved, I thought.
But the old public relations system swung into action and the front page of last week's Sunday Age featured a big story and picture of the W-class trams, all green and gold. Wonderful. You couldn't buy space like that. It just shows how public relations can work.
As it turns out, the trams are going to be with us forever and so I suspect is public relations. The trams don't have ads on the outside, but not all is lost, they have them on the inside.
Now I'm off to Myer with Louise. I see they've got socks for $19.99.
Harold Mitchell is executive chairman of Mitchell Communication Group.
