FEW facets of U.S. life have been debated more aggressively in recent years than the phenomenon that has come to be called "Madison Avenue.'' Advertising has been condemned by misguided critics, overblown by some nervous defenders, and reflected in a cracked mirror by Hollywood. This week. TIME'S editors, in a definitive story followed by two pages of personality sketches of the twelve men on the cover, take a steady measure of Madison Avenue.

Producing the story, on which work began last July, was mainly the task of Senior Editor Robert C. Christopher. Writer Marshall Loeb. Reporter Willard C. Rappleye Jr.. and Researcher Jean Pascoe. The twelve men on the cover, who of course do not exhaust the roster of key men in the advertising business (some of our best friends are missing), were photographed by Ormond Gigli and Derek Bayes. and their pictures placed on a background painted by Robert Vickrey. The cover subjects as numbered above:

1) Norman Hulbert Strouse, president and chief executive officer, J. Walter Thompson Co. 2 ) Fairfax Mastick Cone, chairman of the executive committee. Foote. Cone & Belding. Inc.

3) Charles Hendrickson Brower. president and chairman of the executive committee. Batten. Barton. Durstine & Osborn. Inc.

4) Harry Albert Batten, chairman of the board. N. W. Aver & Son. Inc.

5 ) Leo Burnett, chairman of the board. Leo Burnett Co.. Inc.

6) David Mackenzie Ogilvy. chairman of the board. Ogilvy. Benson & Mather. Inc.

7) Marion Harper Jr.. president and chairman of the board. Interpublic, Inc.

8) George Homer Gribbin, president and chief executive officer. Young & Rubicam. Inc.

9 ) John Philip Cunningham, chairman of the executive committee. Cunningham & Walsh. Inc.

10) Robert Emmett Lusk. chairman of the board and chief executive officer. Benton & Bowles. Inc.

11 ) Henry Guy Little, chairman of the board. Campbell-Ewald Co.

12 ) Robert Mondell Ganger, chairman of the board and of the executive committee. D'Arcy Advertising Co.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.