Let There Be Light (for him)

 AD MAN John Mescall is hip, edgy and socially aware, the sort who laments not being able to use the f-word in his productions. So cool is Mescall, who no doubt earns enough to dress properly and visit the barber on a regular basis, he prefers to get about in Keith Haring T-shirts and a coif that would move a $2 hooker to a fit of jealous spite.

He is also quite the smartie, as he demonstrated when explaining how a sharp ad man goes about making his home attractive to prospective buyers. His first tip, hire a stylist to make the place look as nice as possible.

Next, chuck those energy-saving light bulbs, the ones that cost a fortune, burn out just as fast as incandescents and make it almost impossible to read:

Energy-efficient lights are rubbish. I can’t draw any parallels with advertising on this one, but this stylist guy swears energy-efficient globes make people feel gloomy and depressed. I know these things represented the previous government’s entire climate change policy, but our stylist was right: having just replaced all our lights with old school Kyoto-defying relics, our house looks twice as bright and 20% bigger.

A very sharp man indeed, our Mr Mescall, whose Smart agency has reportedly begun work on the $12 million contract to sell the Gillard carbon tax.

At least, with those “Kyoto-defying relics”, he will be able to see the campaign his team is developing. Given how much Gillard's scheme is going to cost, Mescall probably reckons it is just as well the rest of us are going to be kept in the dark.