VALUE OF PUBLICITY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 16 January 1939, Page 3

VALUE OF PUBLICITY

THE WORLD’S BUSINESS CREATING MASSED THOUGHT LONDON, 15th December. The art of selling is the art of telling, and we in this country have a good story to tell,” said Mr Ernest Osborn, of the Yorkshire Post, at a meeting of the West Yorkshire branch of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries, at Halifax. Mr Osborn said that without publicity life and business generally would be very difficult, for life itself was one long personal advertisement. When we were born, we advertised for food and generally got it. \V lieu we died, our tombstones usually overstated our virtues. I he world's business,” said the speaker, ‘‘depends upon properly-organised publicnty, for without it we should not know what another firm or eounry had to sell, oi what they were prepared to buy from One of the most important aspects of publicity was its power to create what had been described as “massed thought.” It must not he forgotten, however, that while publicity could be used to establish new ideas, is could also be called in to break down old ones. While the advertising of a product was to create a mass thought that the product was good or better than others, if it was not so it was a waste of time and money to advertise Advertising 4 .1 the cost of distribution if it v,,.. a factor of salesman ship that goods well advertised were partly sold. J lie trouble was that goods were not always well advertised, and there was still in this country a lot to b? done regarding properly-organised publicity. Britain had goods to sell, and every effort should he made to make sure that tin value of those goods was made konwn to every possible purchaser at home or abroad.