Page 8 Advertisements Column 2

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17159, 1 October 1923, Page 8

Why Women should read Newspaper Advertisements.

Advertising is the science of bringing together buyer and seller, manufacturer and con' sumer. Newspaper advertising is the greatest of all selling forces. Woman, in the aggregate, is the greatest of all buying forces. That explains why something like 75 per cent, of modern publicity is devoted to the many interests of women. The average woman, by virtue of her training, and the exacting part she has to play in the world’s work, is a far keener and more discriminating buyer than the average man. For this reason the advertisement which is destined to make its appeal to the fair sex is compiled to ensure the maximum of information with the maximum of logical selling argument. Differing entirely from the rather haphazard methods of mere man, the woman brings care and consideration to every purchase (even, may it be said, in the case of dress), and has to be very completely convinced before finally buying. Therefore, it is obvious that, to woman, advertisements in the newspaper can be of very real assistance in elucidating the daily problems with which she has to grapple. Advertisements teach her what to buy, why to buy, where, and most important of all, how to buy. From the indifferent, misleading and, sometimes actually untruthful, advertisements of a generation ago, newspaper publicity has become a force for good. Replacing the exaggeration and mis-statement of bygone days, a rigid censorship, enforced by all the principal publications, ensures that statements relating to the advertised commodity are trustworthy and reliable. Among advertisers it is now an established maxim that untruthful advertisements do not pay.

Through the advertisement pages of their favourite papers, millions of women in remote areas are as much in touch with the trend and change of fashion as their town sisters with direct access to the larger shopping centres. They can, nowadays, buy through the post with complete satisfaction. They weigh competing brands and articles in the balance by judiciously examining advertisments. This is a point advertisers do well to remember. Advertising creates the bargain for the woman. She knows it, profits by it, and, what is more, admits it.