MODERN ADVERTISING.

Northern Advocate, 26 August 1924, Page 4

MODERN ADVERTISING.

Dondon newspapers of recent date give some interesting details of tho work of one of the most interesting of the important conferences that have been held in connection with the Wembley Exhibition. This was the first International Advertising Convention held outside the American Continent. Britain perhaps has been slow to gain complete understanding 0 f the great business of advertising, which in Carlyle's time, for instance, was sadly decried. The old criticism levelled at advertising was that if an nrticlo needed to be advertised it must be a bad .article; if it had merits they would become known without proclamation. How that could be in a community already extensive and complex was never considered. To-day, however, publicity is recognised as a thing without which modern life would be impossible, and the .truth that the better an article is the more it must be advertised is accepted. "Truth in advertising" wa* the keynote of the Convention at "Wembley. At tha t gathering there were 5000 delegates from twenty countries, the United States and Great Britain each having about 2000 representatives. The Convention was an assembly of experts, gathered together to serve a most serious purpose—the pooling of ideas in relation to a, branch of business which is undergoing an incessant active development, and which is the principal motive-power of modern commerce. A truth familiar to every business man to-day. but perhaps not so generally understood outside tho commercial world, was expressed by Mr Mark Silverstone, who went to the Convention from St. Louis. "Without advertising," he said, "yon cannot sell the best goods in the world." One of the innumerable practical applications of that truth, is suggested by the title of n paper read by Mr Le Eoy Pcllctier, of tho Tiiclienbaker Company, in the section devoted to newspaper work— "The Successful Use of Newspapers in Developing the Automobile Industry." That this gigantic business, which has

changed the I'.vo c-f modern life, has attained so rapidiv to its present proportions is due to sound and responsible advertising, methods far more than to any other cause, and that is only one example out of many not less striking that could be adduced. To that vast public which is not "behind the scenes" in publicity work the most interesting aspect of it perhaps is the evolution which has taken place, and is still swiftly proceeding, in the appeal of advertising to the eye. The Empire Exhibition itself is the most ambitious advertising project ever launched. That made Wembley a particularly fitting venue for the gathering of advertising experts. It is confidently expected that the Convention's work will produce good results. There are still vast opportunities to be explored in the development of advertising, and the exchange of ideas among men of all countries cannot have failed to reveal new possibilities in profitable publicity.