Manufacturers who advertise sometimes directly name one or two of their competitors and attack their products. What are your feelings about this advertising practice? Write an essay of about 250 words describing your ideas.

　　Advertisers who directly attack their competitors may amuse me if they do it cleverly. However, they have probably lost me as a customer.

　　Companies who attack their rivals remind me of people who boost their egos by criticizing others. When people do this, I often suspect they have little to offer and may even have something to hide. I would rather find out what is good about a person, not what is bad about someone else.

　　Similarly, I like advertising that lets me know about products that might meet my needs. I don't place much faith in ads telling me what may be wrong with a rival product. I tend to suspect that the information could be biased.

　　I also believe advertisers are foolish to name their rivals because by doing so they give the competing product free publicity. If the competition is worth attacking, I tend to think it may actually have something to offer.

　　In advertising, as in life, I believe we should try to be the best we can be, without belittling the next person - or the rival product.