1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Advertisement

ADVERTISEMENT (see 1.235). — The great public service rendered by advertising during the World War was one of the most striking features of the progress made in this form of business during the decade 1910-20.

Before 1915 no Government in modern times had attempted to raise subscriptions to a loan through the persuasive methods of commercial advertising on a large scale. The custom was merely to publish the prospectus, and leave it to the investor to form his judgment of its merits. It was not till the floating of the 4½% War Loan in 1915 that the British Government took any definite steps to depart from precedent. At an early stage in its subscription, when it was feared that the result would not be as good as had been hoped for, a Treasury official asked the advice of a well-known London journalist, and at his suggestion it was decided to spend £100,000 in advertising under his direction. A little more than £60,000 was actually spent in advertising, and the subscriptions to the loan eventually realized nearly £600,000,000. Later, this new departure was followed, but only after stereotyped official methods had again proved inadequate, in the campaigns for National War Bonds after Dec. 1916, by a considerable extension of advertising, while in the United States it was freely employed in the raising of the Liberty Loans (see War Loans Publicity Campaigns).

Before this, advertising by poster had been employed effectively in England to gain enlistments for the army. In this connexion, and in the loan advertising of 1915 and following years, both in Great Britain and America, advertising reached an effectiveness and power that had never been imagined. It is true that the subject dealt with was in everyone's mind; the appeal was to patriotism, to emotion as well as to cold reason and self-interest. The interests of the writer and of the reader of the advertisements were identical. Even so, the results were amazing. In 1917 a leading American banker said it was impossible to float a loan of $3,000,000,000 because there were “only 275,000 investors in the country.” But after widespread advertising there were more than 6,000,000 individual subscribers to this loan, and the amount was greatly over-subscribed. For the last of the American war loans, the “Victory Loan” floated after the Armistice, nearly 21,000,000 subscribers were obtained — one for every five of the country's population, including women and children.

War advertising enlisted much new talent in writing and illustrating. The foremost artists and writers on both sides of the Atlantic volunteered their services and competed for the honour of having their productions used. With professional advertising men, printers, engravers and lithographers all giving their best, the result was an excellence in form and character that had never been achieved before. While the tide of patriotic emotion raised by the war brought new resources to advertising, their proper application would not have been possible without the knowledge gained in advertising for ordinary business purposes during previous years (see Propaganda).

In the years before 1915 remarkable advances had been made. The number of articles of trade-marked, advertised merchandise had increased rapidly. Stimulated by advertising revenue, scores of weekly and monthly publications had obtained circulation running into hundreds of thousands, and some had passed the million mark. Great daily newspapers had a similar growth and could afford to sell their copies at a price which did not pay for the paper on which they were printed. Posters and advertising signs had passed from their former rude state to a high degree of attractiveness.

At the same time came a remarkable improvement in the character of advertising. Misleading advertisements and advertising of questionable merchandise or of uncertain financial offers were gradually weeded out. Publications found it unprofitable to accept advertising that was offensive to their better clients. The Association of Advertising Clubs of the World adopted “Truth in Advertising” as their slogan, and vigilance committees were appointed to eradicate misleading or untruthful advertising of whatever products. Advertising had become a business of high principles and well-defined ethics. One of the most powerful influences in the development of advertising along sound business and ethical lines was the advertising agency. Beginning more than half a century before as an agency for the selling of space in publications, the modern advertising agency grew into a service institution, acting on behalf of its clients in planning advertising campaigns, selecting the mediums to be used, preparing advertisements, attending to all the details of engraving, type-setting and plate-making and performing many other incidental services. The advertising agency attracted well-educated young men in increasing numbers and represented a recognized field for the employment of talent.

All advertising is more or less a competition for public attention. As the volume of advertising increased the competition became more keen, and resulted in improvement of both the writing and artistic treatment of advertisements. One of the most notable features in recent years has been the use of illustrations in colour, made possible by improved processes of colour-engraving and by the perfection of high-speed colour printing presses. One popular magazine in America, with a circulation approaching two million, has contained more than 50 full-page advertisements in colour in a single issue. Every one of these pages was printed by four-colour process, and gave a faithful reproduction of the subject. This has made it possible to display all sorts of merchandise, including foods, in their natural tempting colours, and textiles with all their shades and patterns, as well as to reproduce beautiful paintings for their attractive value. Perhaps as a result of this achievement in colour printing, there has been a remarkable improvement in the artistic worth of advertising illustrations. Celebrated painters and illustrators no longer find it beneath their dignity to make pictures for advertising purposes, especially as the bids for their services run to large figures. Similar improvement has been achieved in typography, engraving and lithography, and in all the mechanical processes of reproduction.

As the volume of advertising expenditure has grown, so has the number of publications which derive their chief support from advertising. These publications have been divided more and more in recent years into groups or classes, each with an appeal to a certain class of the population. The number of general publications reaching all classes has been correspondingly reduced. The most prominent class publications are the women's magazines, chiefly of monthly issue, of which in 1921 there were four or five in America with more than a million circulation. These magazines deal with home problems, dressmaking, cooking, care of children and kindred subjects, and are the most valuable mediums for the advertising of foods, textiles and all household commodities. There are similar class publications devoted to business interests, the world of books, motion pictures, the theatre, fashionable society, sports of one kind and another and all classes of commercial and industrial enterprises. The significance of this tendency is that advertising of each kind may be placed before the readers it especially interests, with a selected audience and less waste of circulation.

Each succeeding year has seen some enlargement of the possibilities of advertising. Paid space has been used in increasingly large amounts in political campaigns, local and national, presenting the records of candidates and showing photographs of themselves and their families. It is used more and more to influence public opinion on behalf of one cause or another. Industrial disputes, involving strikes or lock-outs, have led employers and employees alike to appeal through advertisements to the public for sympathy and moral support. Public service institutions have used advertising to put themselves in a better light before the public or to explain the necessity for increased revenue. In one notable case, advertising was used to turn business away. The American Telephone & Telegraph Co. was seriously affected by the entry of the United States into the World War. It could not obtain the supplies it needed; the Government took thousands of its highly trained workers; and at the same time demands on its service increased enormously. The Company was wise enough to advertise, explaining why its service was deficient, why applicants were kept waiting for installations, and also imploring the public neither to conduct unnecessary conversations over the wires nor to prolong use beyond the time required. Similar advertising was employed by the American railways in the period immediately following their return from Government control to private management, but in this case the explanation of inadequate service was followed by an appeal for higher passenger and freight rates to provide revenue for rehabilitation. During the same period, the Chicago meat-packers, facing threatened Federal action for the further regulation of their activities, entered upon an elaborate advertising campaign to convince the public of their blamelessness.

All these varied developments of advertising have been of the utmost interest to students of economic trends. It is certain that advertising has been largely instrumental in changing buying habits and in introducing many things which have quickly become a part of everyday life. The chief function of advertising is the saving of time. Information, whether as to merchandise or controversial or public issues, can be placed before great numbers of the population almost over night. Public education on any subject can be effected in days or weeks, where years were required by old-fashioned methods of canvassing. For this reason it has been possible to build up entire new industries on advertised products within a short period. In political life, and in financial operations, advertising has served to eliminate the secrecy and ignorance which invite deceit and fraud. The whole tendency is to take the public into confidence and play the game in the full light of fair and frank publicity. Advertising is no weapon for dark causes and no advocate for unworthy goods. To be effective it must be a sincere expression of the character of the advertiser. Unless it bears the stamp of truth and sincerity it is ineffective and defeats its own purpose.

This individuality of a business house as well as the conditions under which it operates and the field from which it may seek custom must all be considered carefully before embarking on an advertising campaign. It is well to seek the expert assistance of an advertising agency of established reputation. The implements of advertising are many, including newspapers, weeklies, magazines, trade publications, outdoor displays, cards in railway cars and the sending of circulars and booklets to persons whose names have been selected on some sound principle. Each is more efficient for one purpose than another, and knowledge and judgment are needed to plan a campaign that will achieve results at economical cost. The advertising policy of a business house and the selection of an advertising agency and advertising manager should be a concern for the executive heads who direct the permanent interests of the business. For advertising, once entered upon, is a continuing influence. The advertising for any one week or any one month, unlike that week's or month's buying or selling, cannot be regarded as a completed transaction. Advertising, it already has been said, is an expression of character. It reveals the character of the advertiser, and immediately begins to form a consciousness of the particular house or merchandise advertised in the mind of the public. It has an influence also on the advertiser's own organization. The workman in the factory and the salesman in the shop judge from the advertising their employer's sincerity and desire to serve. If the advertising is such that they can take pride in it; if it is attractive in appearance; if it is placed in the right environment; if it is a worthy representation of the purposes and ideals that animate the business — then the advertising will stimulate every employee to greater efforts and enhance the moral of the organization. Every advertisement tends to create or destroy the one great business asset, reputation.

The steady growth of advertising is assured. While there are no authentic data on the amount spent for advertising, it has been estimated that the expenditure for all forms of advertising in America in 1920 was upwards of $1,200,000,000, an increase of approximately 100% in five years. Individual industrial firms in Great Britain spend as much as £200,000 a year on advertising, and the total expenditure there on all forms of publicity is estimated at over a hundred million sterling annually. With the growth in public intelligence and the realization of the power of advertising, it is likely to be still more widely employed in the future. The modern business concern is adopting advertising as a part of its fixed business policy; not as an expedient for occasional use but as an element of business to be constantly employed.