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Pohl and Kornbluth's ad men have long since thrown out appeals to reason and developed techniques of advertising which tie in with `` every basic trauma and neurosis in American life '', which work on the libido of consumers, which are linked to the `` great prime motivations of the human spirit ''.

As the hero, Mitchell Courtenay, explains before his conversion, the job of advertising is `` to convince people without letting them know that they're being convinced ''.

And to do this requires first of all the kind of information about people which is provided by the scientists in industrial anthropology and consumer research, who, for example, tell Courtenay that three days is the `` optimum priming period for a closed social circuit to be triggered with a catalytic cue-phrase '' -- which means that an effective propaganda technique is to send an idea into circulation and then three days later reinforce or undermine it.

And the second requirement for convincing people without their knowledge is artistic talent to prepare the words and pictures which persuade by using the principles which the scientists have discovered.

Thus the copywriter in the world of the space merchants is the person who in earlier ages might have been a lyric poet, the person `` capable of putting together words that stir and move and sing ''.

As Courtenay explains, `` Here in this profession we reach into the souls of men and women.

And we do it by taking talent -- and redirecting it ''.