21 AUGUST 1993, Page 22

A question of taste

Sir: Nigel Spivey's review (Books, 31 July) was — as he himself would put it —unadul- terated horse piss. The secret of Coca-Cola is not its advertising but its taste —as any- one who has ever tried one of its myriad syrupy, sickly competitors will confirm. Even Pepsi does not taste quite the same, as blind taste tests have proven.

Spivey's snobbish trite view that 99 per cent of the human race is made up of morons who will follow wherever the admen lead was silly nonsense 40 years ago, when it was first advanced by Vance Packard, and it is even sillier nonsense now. Winston Fletcher

25 Wellington Street, London WC2