96
ADVERTISEMENT
subject by examining the two other classes of advertisedetailed statistics are required in order to demonstrate ment. The most enthusiastic partisan of advertising will what every reader can plainly see for himself, that adver- admit that posters and similar devices are very tising has definitely assumed its position as a serious field generally regarded by the public as sources of of commercial enterprise. > annoyance. A bold headline or a conspicuous t} nts. Advertising, as practised at the beginning ot the 20th illustration in a newspaper advertisement may seme century, may be divided into three general classes. for a moment force itself upon the reader s attention. In 1. Advertising in periodical publications. the French, and in some English newspapers, where an 2. Advertising by posters, sign-boards (other than those advertisement is often given the form of an item of news, placed upon premises where the advertised business is the reader is distressed by the constant fear of being conducted), transparencies, and similar devices. hoodwinked. He begins to read an account of a street 3. Circulars, sent in quantities to specific classes ot accident, and finds at the end of the paragraph a puff of persons to whom the advertiser specially desired to address a panacea for bruises. The best English and American himself. journals have refused to lend themselves to this sort of It may be noted at the outset that advertising m trickery, and in no one of the best journals printed in the periodical publications exercises a reflex influence upon English language will there be found an advertisement these publications. The daily, weekly, and monthly publications of the day are accustomed to look to adver- which is not so plainly differentiated from new s matter tisements for so large a part of their revenue that the that the reader may avoid it if he sees fit to do so. On purchaser of a periodical publication receives much gieatei the whole, then, newspaper advertisements ask, but do compel attention. The whole theory of poster advervalue for his money than he could reasonably expect from not tising is, on the other hand, one of tyranny. The adverthe publisher if the aggregate advertising receipts did not tiser who pays for space upon a hoarding or wall, although constitute a perpetual subsidy to the publisher. It is not may encourage a form of art, deliberately violates the to be supposed, however, that the receipts from the. sale he wayfarer’s mind. A trade-mark or a catch-word presents of a paper cover all its expenses and that the advertising itself when eye and thought are occupied with other revenue is all clear profit. The average newspaper reader subjects. Those who object to this class of advertisement would be amazed if he knew at how great a cost the assert, with some show of reason, that an advertisement day’s news is laid before him. A dignified journal displays no more right to assault the eye in this fashion than to no inclination to cry from the housetops the vastness of has its expenditure, but from time to time an accident enables storm the ear by an inordinate din j and a man who came the public to obtain information in this connexion. The up behind another man in the street, placed his mouth evidence taken by a recent Copyright Commission disclosed close to the other’s ear, and bawled a recommendation of that the expenditure of the leading English Journal upon some brand of soap or tobacco, would be regarded as an foreign news alone amounted to more than <£50,000 in the intolerable disturber of public peace and comfort. et course of one year, and that a year not characterized by any if the owner of a house sees fit to paint advertisements great war to swell the ordinary volume of cable despatches. upon his walls, his exercise of the jealously guarded rights In the case of daily papers sold at the minimum of private property may not lightly be distuibed. lor price, it is not less obvious that the costliness of new s the most part, both law and public opinion content themservice renders advertising revenue indispensable, for selves with restraining the worst excesses of the advertiser, although these less important journals spend less money, leaving many sensitive persons to suffer. The National the price at which they are supplied to the newsagents is Society for Checking the Abuses of Public Ad ertising, very small in proportion to the cost of their production. founded in 1893 in London, was organized for purposes If, however, this thought be pursued to its logical con- which it describes as follows :— clusion, the advertiser must admit that he in turn receives, The society aims at protecting the picturesque simplicity of from those among newspaper readers who purchase his rural and river scenery, and promoting a regard for dignity and wares, prices sufficiently high to cover the. cost of. his propriety of aspect in towns—with especial reference to the abuses spectacular advertising. , , , , ,. advertising. So that the reader is in the curious position of It seeks to procure legislation whereby local representative of directly paying a certain pi'ice for his newspaper, bodies would be enabled to exercise control, by means of bye-laws receiving a newspaper fairly worth more than that price, framed with a view to enabling them, at any rate, to grant rebel while this price is supplemented by the indirect incidence in cases of flagrant and acknowledged abuse. It is believed that, when regulation is applied in cases where of a sort of tax upon many of the commodities he local conditions are peculiarly favourable, the advantage will be consumes. On the other hand, a great part of the so apparent that, by force of imitation and competition, the advertisements in a daily newspaper have themselves an enforcement of a reasonable standard will gradually become interest and utility not less than that possessed by the common. The degree of restraint will, of course, depend upon varying requirements of different places and positions. jSo news. The man who desires to hire a house turns to the the hard and fast rule is suggested; no particular class of advertiseclassified lists which the newspaper publishes day after ment is proscribed ; certainly no general prohibition of posters on day, and servants and employers find one another by the temporary hoardings is contemplated. Within the metropolitan same means. The theatrical announcements are so much area sky signs have already been prohibited, and it is hoped that corresponding check will be placed on the multiplication of a part of the news that even if a journal were not paid some the field boards which so materially diminish the pleasure or for their insertion they could not be altogether omitted comfort of railway journeys. , , . without inconvenience to the reader. In the main, howThe society regards with favour the imposition of a moderate ever, it is the advertiser who seeks the reader, not the tax or duty for imperial or local purposes on exposed advertisenot coming within certain categories of obviously necessary reader who seeks the advertiser, and the care with which ments The difficulty of inducing a Chancellor of the Exchequer advertisements are prepared, and the certainty with which notices. to move in a matter where revenue is not the primary considerathe success or failure of a trader may be traced to his tion is not overlooked. .But it is thought that any impost would skill or want of skill as an advertiser, show that the materially reduce the volume of exposed advertisements, and at once extinguish, the most offensive and the most proper use of advertising is one of the most indispensable would annoying class, i.e., the quack advertisements by the road sides branches of commercial training. and the bills stuck by unauthorized persons on trees, walls, and Before discussing in detail the methods of advertising in periodical publications it may be well to complete, for ^ Members are recommended to make it known that there the use of the general reader, a brief survey of the whole exists an active repugnance to the present practice of advertising
