“It Pays to Advertise

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 12470, 3 October 1938, Page 1

“It Pays to Advertise

CITRUS GROWERS' PROBLEM MR. DOIDGE AT OTUMOETAI. EXCELLENT ADVICE. “Vve know that the citrus fruit industry in Now Zealand is in a bad way, yet it ought to ho prosperous, and, knowing something of the advertising business as the result of long experience in newspaper management, I wonder sometimes whether judicious advertising would not help to solve the problem of the citrus fruit growers." said Mr. F. W. Doidge, National Candidate, when addressing a crowded meeting of electors at Otumoetai, on Saturday night.

“Let me preface my remarks by a personal experience, ’ continued Mr Doidge. “Four years ago doctors in Edinburgh and in London took a serious view of my health. An X-ray supported that view. I escaped an operation, but for the years after my return to New Zealand I never ventured to travel anywhere without a i supply of the powders which had been prescribed for me. A year ago i came to live in Tauranga. And from that day to this I’ve never taken one of those powders. The juice of a lemon, without sugar, taken every morning, before breakfast, winter and summer alike, has kept me.-in perfect health. “Now it’s a strange fact,” added the speaker, “that all over the world men and women, for the most part, are cranks about their health. They will turn to any palliative that is advertised sufficiently. “And there are many ways of adadvertising. The subtle advertisement is often the best advertisement I remember some remarkable campaigns successfully carried through in Britain. In Birmingham, for instance, one of the great local industries is the manufacture of jeweller} 7 of all kinds. Jewellery looked like going out of fashion. Suddenly there began to appear letters in newspapers all over the country signed by Dowager Duchesses and so on, praising a neat taste in jewellery.

There was a sudden revival in the jewellery trade. Then came the cocktail habit, with the result that the trade in sherry as a before-dinner apertif, fell away to nothing. Again there was recourse to the subtle method of advertising. Letters appeared signed by doctors and other prominent people, declaring the drinking of cocktails a harmful and pernicious habit, and at the same time extolling the virtues of sherry. Result; Sherry came back into favour. “Similarly you will have heard of the success of the ‘Say it with flowers’ campaign; and the world-wide success of the ‘apple a day’ slogan. “Well, there are at least a million people in New Zealand whom it should be possible to talk into the habit of a lemon a day. Doctors could quite conscientiously and sincerely support a campaign of the kind. A million lemons consumed before breakfast every morning .voulcl soon ease the situation for the citrus growers of Tauranga and the Bay of Islands. “And you will have noted," concluded Mr Doidge, “’that as I’ve talked to you this evening I’ve from time to time sipped a citrus drink from a bottle placed before me by my friend, Mi- Youngson. It is grand stuff. Tell the world about it. Advertise it as bottled sunshine. The results will astonish you.’’