ART OF ADVERTISING

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 146, 21 June 1924, Page 16

ART OF ADVERTISING

A GREAT ECONOMIC FORCE.

Speaking at the annual meeting in London of the National Advertising Society, which was founded for the benelit of those engaged in advertising little more than a decade ago, Sir Eric Geddes sajd that, althoijgh he had inquired, lie had not heard authoritatively who the first advertiser was. "The tribes in Central Africa are reputed from prehistoric times," he proceeded, "to have had those who were professionally advertising agents for their potentates, and these 'praisers,' as I b.eljeve they 'were called, extolled the virtues of the 'being' in power, and stimulated the interest of tho masses by methods which, for some reaspn or other, the advertisr "ing profession to-day has abandoned— by threats of death and torture if the /masses did not respond to the loyal propaganda of the ! praisprs.' (Laughter.) fViYPftisifig—modern advertising—had advanced a great deal from these primitive examples, and to-day, in his judgment, was pnp qf the great sciences of business, one qf the greatest powers in industrial and commercial life, and a great economic force for the reduction of costs. (Hear, hear.) With a skilled advertising campaign, adequate but not excessive, a manufacturer was able, with a marvellous degree of certainty, to find a^ market'tor just and economic output. There were far top many who still shut their eyes to the importance of advertising, the correct ''amount of advertising, the proper display, arid the proper correlation with _ the sales, end and the ■factory. end. In" time- ail: manufacturers, transport undertakings, 'and businesses which appealed to the public for their prosperity would come to "the'"skilled advertiser, just as the wise mother went to the. doctor' for her children's health; and tlie proof that the public was learning was the growth of the pq\yer and influence of the advertising profession, the progress that it was making, the improved quality of' advertising, both in writing and'display, and the use of better pictures." (Hear, hear.). He looked upon skilled advertising—provided the advertising agent, like the dqctor, was given every intimate detail of the business, so that he could diagnose the case —as one of the great and very important factors in steadying' emplqyment and reducing fluctuation in the operatives employed.