For a number of years nearly every magazine carrying advertising showed handsome men in various prestige poses and labeled them "Men of Distinction." They were usually found in an elegant setting of impeccable decor, dressed stylishly, and bearing all the distinguishing marks of affluent, successful men of the world.

There was a thoroughbred kind of casualness in the demeanor and an aura of "we have arrived." The ads had a compelling quality. The subliminal message fairly screamed that if one used the product promoted by a particular distillery, this ultimately led to success. Or, if one had arrived, he could do no less than take part in the sacred ritual so reverently depicted.

All the men on the page were referred to as Men of Distinction, not because of what they were or did, but because …