: Advertisements for The Economist: what do they mean? I recently bought a book called 'The Advertising Concept Book' to help me improve in the areas of advertising and idea generation. Throughout

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1.
In the actual advertising, the quote is attributed to a "management trainee, aged 42":

The idea here is that if that person had read The Economist, he wouldn't still be a trainee at such an advanced age.
2.
A pregnant pause happens when listeners wait expectantly (pregnant = "expecting (a child)") for what you will say. If you are the father of the pregnant pause, the listeners wait expectantly for what you are going say. The warning to not be the cause of that expectation implies that it is not being fulfilled, because you do not know what to say. If you read The Economist, you know what to say and cause no pause in conversation.
3.
When you can slip out of a meeting unnoticed, you habitually do not contribute to meetings because you have nothing to say. If you read The Economist, you will have something meaningful to contribute.

All the advertisements from that campaign emphasize that reading The Economist will give its readers the knowledge necessary to excel in fields related to economy such as management and business.
This message is expressed by putting common phrases into a context where their meaning is inverted. Usually, when someone says that they don't read a periodical it means that it contains nothing that is useful for them. Usually, when we speak of a pregnant pause, we mean that we wait for something highly informative or exciting. Usually, when you slip out of a meeting unnoticed, you do because the meeting was boring and useless. By slightly changing the wording or context of these common phrases, these advertisements create a brief irritation, which is resolved in a moment of humor.
An example for a new advertisement following the same design principle might be:

If the mountain won't come to Muhammad, Muhammad will read The Economist.

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The pregnant pause. Make sure you're not the father.

This one's easy, I think. Pregnant and father. Rather as an accident than on purpose.

Pregnant pause. When someone stops talking, and everybody looks at you, because whatever was said before that pause, most probably negative, was directed at you. Oops. You're the father of a pregnant pause... What did you do to deserve that? Try not to do it again.

Lose the ability to slip out of meetings unnoticed.

If you can slip out of a meeting unnoticed, it's probably because you weren't needed there anyway. Try to make yourself indispensable.

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