It is probably true that people receive the advertising they deserve. Even though we often prefer to deny it, advertisements in medical journals must influence and reflect our habits in some way or other, for otherwise the advertisers would not spend such large sums of money on their preparation and publication. Even partial glimpses of excavated advertisements from the days ofthe ancient Roman...

This paper describes the author s experience of 60 years of Operational Research and presents some thoughts on the nature of the work of an Operational Researcher. 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.