traffic occasioned by flashlight and searchlight advertisements. This by-law reads as follows:—
No person shall exhibit any flashlight so as to be visible from any street and to cause danger to the traffic therein, nor shall any owner or occupier of premises permit or suffer any flashlight to be so exhibited on such premises.
The expression “flashlight” means and includes any light used for the purpose of illuminating, lighting, or exhibiting any word, letter, model, sign, device, or representation in the nature of an advertisement, announcement, or direction which alters suddenly either in intensity, colour, or direction.
No person shall exhibit any searchlight so as to be visible from any street, and to cause danger to the traffic therein, nor shall any owner or occupier of premises permit or suffer any searchlight to be so exhibited on such premises.
The expression “searchlight” means and includes any light exceeding 500-candle power, whether in one lamp or lantern, or in a series of lamps or lanterns used together and projected as one concentrated light, and which alters either in intensity, colour, or direction.
Advertising vans were so troublesome in London as to be prohibited in 1853; the “sandwich-man” has in the City of London and many towns been ousted from the pavement to the gutter, from the more crowded to the less crowded streets, and as the traffic problem in the great centres of population becomes more urgent, he will probably be altogether suppressed.
Hoardings are now so restricted by the London Building Acts that new hoardings cannot, except under special conditions, be erected exceeding 12 feet in height, and no existing hoardings can be increased in height so as to exceed that limit. The huge signs which some advertisers, both in England and the United States, have placed in such positions as to mar the landscape, have so far aroused public antagonism that there is reason to hope that this form of nuisance will not increase.
In 1899 Edinburgh obtained effective powers of control over all sorts of advertising in public places, and this achievement has been followed by no little agitation in favour of a Parliamentary enactment which should once for all do away with the defacing of the landscape in any part of the United Kingdom.
In 1907 an act was passed (Advertisements Regulation Act) of a permissive character purely, under which a local authority is enabled to make by-laws, subject to the confirmation of the Home Secretary, regulating (1) the erection of hoardings, &c., exceeding 12 feet in height, and (2) the exhibition of advertisements which might affect the “amenities” of a public place or landscape.
The English law with regard to posters has undergone very little change. The Metropolitan Police Act 1839 (2 and 3 Vict. cap. 47) first put a stop to unauthorized posting, and the Indecent Advertisements Act of 1889 (§ 3) penalized the public exposure of any picture or printed or written matter of an indecent or obscene nature. But in general practice there is hardly any limitation to the size or character of poster advertisements, other than good taste and public opinion. On the other hand, public opinion is a somewhat vague entity, and there have been cases in which a conflict has arisen as to what public opinion really was, when its legally authorized exponent was in a position to insist on its own arbitrary definition. Such an instance occurred some few years ago in the case of a large poster issued by a well-known London music-hall. The Progressive majority on the London County Council, led by Mr (afterwards Sir) J. M‘Dougall, a well-known “purity” advocate, took exception to this poster, which represented a female gymnast in “tights” posed in what was doubtless intended for an alluring and attractive attitude; and, in spite of any argument, the fact remained that the decision as to renewing the licence of this music-hall rested solely with the Council. In showing that it would have no hesitation in provoking even a charge of meddling prudery, the Council probably gave a salutary warning to people who were inclined to sail rather too near the wind. But in Great Britain and America, at all events (though a doubt may perhaps exist as to some Continental countries), the advertiser and the artist are restrained, not only by their own sense of propriety, but by fear of offending the sense of propriety in their customers.
Posters and placards in railway stations and upon public vehicles still embarrass the traveller who desires to find the name of a station or the destination of a vehicle. In respect of all these abuses it is a regrettable fact that unpopularity cannot be expected to deter the advertiser. If a name has once been fixed in the memory, it remains there long after the method of its impression has been forgotten, and the purpose of advertisements of the class under discussion is really no more than the fixing of a trade name in the mind. The average man or woman who goes into a shop to buy soap is more or less affected by a vague sense of antagonism towards the seller. There is a rudimentary feeling that even the most ordinary transaction of purchase brings into contact two minds actuated by diametrically opposed interests. The purchaser, who is not asking for a soap he has used before, has some hazy suspicion that the shopkeeper will try to sell, not the article best worth the price, but the article which leaves the largest margin of profit; and the purchaser imagines that he in some measure secures himself against a bad bargain when he exercises his authority by asking for some specific brand or make of the commodity he seeks. If he has seen any one soap so persistently advertised that his memory retains its name, he will ask for it, not because he has any reason to believe it to be better or cheaper than others, but simply because he baffles the shopkeeper, and assumes an authoritative attitude by exerting his own freedom of choice. This curious and obscure principle of action probably lies at the root of all poster advertising, for the poster does not set forth an argument as does the newspaper advertisement. It hardly attempts to reason with the reader, but merely impresses a name upon his memory. It is possible, by lavish advertising, to go so far in this direction that the trade-mark of a certain manufacturer becomes synonymous with the name of a commodity, so that when the consumer thinks of soap or asks for soap, his concept inevitably couples the maker’s name with the word “soap” itself. In order that the poster may leave any impression upon his mind, it must of course first attract his attention. The assistance which the advertiser receives from the artist in this connexion is discussed in the article Poster.
The fact that the verb “to circularize” was first used in 1848; sufficiently indicates the very recent origin of the practice of plying possible purchasers with printed letters and pamphlets. The penny postage was not established in England until 1840; the halfpenny post for circulars was not introduced until 1855. Advertisement by circular.In the United States a uniform rate of postage at two cents was not established until 1883. In both countries cheap postage and cheap printing have so greatly encouraged the use of circulars that the sort of people whom the advertiser desires to reach—those who have the most money to spend, and whose addresses, published in directories, indicate their prosperous condition—are overwhelmed by tradesmen’s price-lists, appeals from charitable institutions, and other suggestions for the spending of money. The addressing of envelopes and enclosing of circulars is now a recognized industry in many large towns both in Great Britain and in the United States. It seems, however, to be the opinion of expert advertisers that what is called “general circularizing” is unprofitable, and that circulars should only be sent to persons who have peculiar reason to be interested by their specific subject-matter. It may be noted, as an instance of the assiduity with which specialized circularizing is pursued, that the announcement of a birth, marriage or death in the newspapers serves to call forth a grotesque variety of circulars supposed to be adapted to the momentary needs of the recipient.
In concluding this review of methods of advertising, other than advertisements in periodical publications, we may add that the most extraordinary attempt at advertisement which is known to exist is to be found at the churchyard at Godalming, Surrey, where the following epitaph was placed upon a tombstone:—
