TRUTH IN ADVERTISING.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXIII, Issue 309, 12 January 1912, Page 7

TRUTH IN ADVERTISING.

By a curious paradox, America, which is noted for its extravagance in •'boosting" goods and ideas, has also started a movement for greater truthfulness in advertising. This is one of the results of the seventh annual convention of the Associated Advertising Clubs of America, held recently in Boston, and described by an English visitor as the most amazing gathering he ever witnessed. Three thousand delegates, keen, alert, and "steeped to the eyebrows in advertising," formed the Convention. The dominant note of the gathering was truth in advertising. The English delegates were doubtless under the impression that "adornment" was an essential feature of American advertising, but the Convention soon dispelled that idea. "The doctrine of 'The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,' was propounded with the earnestness and enthusiasm of a gospel," says an English delegate. "It was recognised, of course, that the problem of advertising is how to get the consumer interested in the goods of a producer, but it was further maintained that in order to be really effective, an advertisement must only' state what the customer, on using the goods, discovers to bo abundantly true. In. other words, 'The goods must be delivered.'" So those in control of the Convention set themselves to convince delegates that the actual goods advertised must be delivered. Large mottoes such as the following were hung round the walls: —"Make your goods as good as your advertising," "A hen cackles only when it has delivered the goods." The visitors found that in the Unitcc States thei principles of advertisinj had been evolved into a profession. I: nearly every city and town adverti.' ing clubs have been organised, wit the object of crystallising publicit into what is now known as "the gre; modern science," with the active c operation in every case of the loc Chamber of Commerce. Educiitl Committees have been formed in eve section, which send out "missionarie to enlist recruits, organise new clu where necessary, and spread the gl tidings of profitable advertising genl ally. During the Convention the ' tiring president said that he had t' veiled 20,000 miles in the past t years on these missionary jourin Great Britain has not shown anyth like such enthusiasm, but the Engi delegates were so impressed by wl happened at the Convention that eloujit more activity will quickly displayed.