VITAL FACTOR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23094, 20 July 1938, Page 10

VITAL FACTOR

HFE of tie people VALUE OF ADVERTISING - : ~ ... . ; FUIURE development f FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT] LONDON, July 2-'-Suggestions as to the lines which advertising development of the futuie should follow were given by lord .■ South wood of Fernhiirst, president of the Advertising Association, in his inaugural address at the opening of the International Advertisiij# Convention, ; in the Concert Hall of the Empire Ex- $ hibition, Glasgow. The title of the address was " The Influence of Advertising upon the Life of the People." More than 1,000 §| delegates, many of them from foreign - and Empire countries, are attending V the convention. , Lord Southwood stated that the poorest in "the land enjoyed wonderful gjft s —built up by the power of adver-tifring—-denied even to kings and ; s princes in the past. Points in hi* address included: Conveniences Lacking In Past Queen Elizabeth commanded . tall ships by the score, but only by paying almost a queen's ransom could she obtain a pair of silk stockings. Richard the Third was reputed to have offered his kingdonrfor a horse. Had he been able to offer the world could not have obtained that modern friend of man, the humble bicycle. Cleopatra had the wealth of Kgypt, but with all her wealth she never knew, the convenience of a zip fastener. Who could say how many more priceless masterpieces Shakespeare might not have written had he known the luxury of a good fountain pen, or the convenience of a typewriter ? Advertising had put the millionaire's designer at the service of the people. " I sometimes think," added Lord Southwood, " that the real value of advertising is not so much that it helps to make the mass-production machine our- servant as that it prevents it from becoming our master.'' Encouragement of Demand «• To-day, when men are increasing!} drilled and stamped into uniform patterns, it i 3 good that One great influence should cater for man's right to please himself. In my view advertising's greater value to society is that it proclaims the customer as king. Its final arbiter is the common mau—the one product of our civilisation which we shall never quite succeed in massproducing." Advertising, by constantly encouraging demand, was a vital factor in keep ing employment at the highest possible level. It could do that only because it had given the public confidence in purchasing; it had created an adventurousness in spending that did not exist a few years ago. Without that confidence, modem commerce, as they knew it, could, not operate. This, then, was their trust; This was the responsibility of advertising to the community. This, above all other was the one clear duty that they, as advertisers, owed to themselves, to each other, and to the public. It was to keep faith with the men and women who trusted the , words they wrote. Trust'Keposed in Advertisers " The cardinal the most short sighted—sin any advertiser can commit is the betrayal of that trust," said Lord Southwood. "If there are any to whom honesty for. its own sake does not appeal, let them at least heed the command of commonsense. For we who use advertising should not need reminding that it is the consumer who always has the final word. " Advertising knows no frontiers Its concern is with the individual man. the individual mind. Therein lies it' incalculable power." Mr. T. Bjorn Schyberj;. of Oslo, president of the Nordic Advertising Association, said that advertising was not only the most important sales medium of our time, but it ought also to be the greatest medium of , enlightenment. The world was in chaos in spite ol technical progress and this must be ascribed to the human element. He urged the appointment of expert commissions to prepare plans for nations' progress, and suggested a propaganda campaign for guiding the people to a higher standard.