Page:The Newspaper and the Historian.djvu/399

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of the great men of history. Psychology has given the form to the commercial advertisement while history has given the substance; the one represents the cross -cut section , the other the longitudinal view of commercial advertising.

Commercial advertising often appeals not only to history but to the imagination. Pegasus and Pygmalion, the Sistine Chapel, da Vinci, and Benvenuto Cellini and every great character and important association in history are conjured up by the imagi nation and become a part of the daily newspaper.

The commercial advertisement was long content with ex ploiting the products of industry, -- silks,woolens, laces ; bicycles, motorcycles , and automobiles. But to-day it concentrates its appeal on bridging the distance between producer and consumer

and on the processes of production . Timeand space are annihi lated when products are " sold everywhere" and " can be found everywhere,” and when the consumer has only to ask your grocer ,” or to " inform us if you can't get it.” The advertiser of furs takes readers to the far North and

describes the various steps by which furs, through trapping, trading,and shipping,are brought from remote places and peoples to great metropolitan centers . The advertisers of pearls explain the pearl fisheries in Oriental seas and the steps that intervene

between the shell as it comes from the hand of the diver and the pearls as they reach Fifth Avenue. The process of shoe manu facture and the preparation ofmilk for themarket; the textile mill

that shows every process in the manufacture of cotton,woolen , silk , and knit goods; the advertisement of a complete exhibit

of the textiles used in the armyand the navy; the advertisement giving an insight into the extent that the manufacture of by products plays in a great industry ; the description of the equip

ment of a great electric company, - everywhere , whether it be a tool, a screw , an implement, the construction of an automobile tire, or a factory in full operation , it is the process of production that is advertised as an appeal in the sale of commodities . In many forms of business , the advertising appeal is made to the conditions under which work is performed , — to the abundance

of fresh air and sunshine, the short hours of labor, the holidays and summer vacations, rest rooms and lunch rooms, medical