A Masterful Ad From the Reagan Years

Republican presidential hopefuls agree, CNN reports: the greatest living president is Ronald Reagan.

Although the Great Communicator died 11 years ago, enthusiasm for the Reagan era is real, so here's a notable ad from 1985.

The skillfully crafted copy does a splendid job of selling the services of a trust bank, in this case Morgan Guaranty Trust Company. (By the 1980s, trust companies had begun to seem old hat, hence the alias, "The Morgan Bank.")

The Reagan era was probably the last in which claims of superior investment performance could be made without evoking snickers.

For those of a certain age, the Reagan Era may seem like only yesterday. Techwise, it was long, long ago. In 1985 this was a mobile phone: