WOMEN IN ADVERTISING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19419, 30 August 1926, Page 5

WOMEN IN ADVERTISING.

Of late years more and more women have been getting into the advertising world, but the Hon. Mrs. St. Aubyn, who is. Lady Carnock's daughter and whose husband is heir to tho St. Leven barony, is tho first woman to have the position of what may bo called psychological adviser. She has recently joined the Carlton Publicity Company and her business is to look at everv advertisement from a

woman's point of view. "After ail," she said in an interview, "What do men buy as a rule beside their clothes—razors, bungalows, cigars and wine and not always even tho latter."

Mrs. St. Aubyn is convinced that there is an enormous field for women in the advertising world, but a woman who wants to get on the advisory side needs to know very well all classes of women. Mrs. St. Aubvn herself has had, perhaps, exceptional opportunities, as she has taken the keenest possible interest? in child welfare and trained for a whole year for creche work and has worked in welfare centres steadily; so that she knows the mentality of the poor, her association with a scheme for amalgamating all college-trained nursery nurses has brought her into close contact, with the middle classes.

"I should put the first qualification of all an ability for organisation; next, tact. And third, a very good eye for detail. This, of course, can be cultivated, although people never realise it. You must learn to look at every advertisement from two points of view. How will the professional wholesale dealers look at it, and how will it appeal to tho women who buy in small quantities ? Personally, I believe that women are still governed a good deal more by their hearts than by their heads. American advertisers realise this more than we do. They always look for some domestic or heart "interest even in a pickle. That's why their women's papers are always so interesting. Women read eret'y line of their advertisements as well as the ordinary reading matter. You may got a man who is really brilliant at "layouts"—that is arranging the advertisements—but he will often miss just that appeal that means that a woman will not only read it, but remember it.

Mrs. St. Aubyn thinks that educated girls, uuiversity undergraduates, and so on, will bo very well advised to consider the advertising world when looking for a career.