Advertising problems

May 2, 1985

Dear Jan:

Since I returned from California the advertising problem has been given some further consideration, and what has been decided is that I should write some kind of an “attention-getting” article which would be reproduced and mailed to a selected group of prospects along with the usual sales pitch.

It is not easy to find a subject for such an article. Most of my conclusions are based on long lines of reasoning involving concepts that require considerable explanation, and they don’t fit within the limits of a short article. However, I did hit on an idea, and I have written an article. But now that it is finished, I am not so sure that reproducing it for advertising purposes is the best use that we can make of it. I am inclined to think that it might have a chance of being published in some scientific magazine.

The big problem with this is to get it past the editorial assistants, junior grade, that man the front desks. This being the case, it occurred to me that since you have opened up a line of communication with Dr. Gribbin, you might like to offer it to him for publication. In my opinion it would be quite appropriate for the New Scientist. You can tell him that it was written for use in connection with an advertising campaign, but that if he wants it he can have it, and I will write another for the publishers.

I am enclosing two copies of the article. If you have any ideas as to a different way of using it, please let me know.

     

An afterthought:

I might emphasize the fact that essentially all that I have done in the artiele is to explore the consequences of the proposition that the natural system of reference, the system to which the universe actually conforms, is that system in which an object that is, in fact, motionless does not move.

D. B. L