MODERN ADVERTISING IN GREAT BRITAIN Complaints have been heard in our own time, though the loudest of them were directed against unsightly notice-boards in rural surroundings. A British society for correcting the abuses of public advertising has been active in this, but the suppression of fraudulent advertising was left to the industry itself. The national vigilance committee of the advertising association sys tematically calls the attention of newspaper-publishers to doubt ful announcements, and the censorship committee of the British poster advertising association (a society of hoarding-owners) is powerful enough to suppress any poster calculated to offend public taste or morality.
Such movements in restraint of abuses are a mark of the modern spirit in advertising, which claims the name of an economic necessity. Through the use of trade-marks and other brands, it enables a consumer to identify wares of standard quality, while by aiding the distribution of merchandise, and sometimes facilitating the introduction of useful inventions which could not be produced at all if they were not marketable on a large scale, it performs public services of no small value.
The use of advertising as an aid to distribution of goods is traceable to the coming of railways and the factory system, early in the 19th century. When commodities of many kinds, formerly produced slowly by hand in small workshops, began to be turned out in large quantities by machinery, markets had to be enlarged, or overhead expenses and interest charges might have crippled the young factories. Simultaneously, improved and cheapened transport made it possible for manufacturers to seek custom far afield.
The statement may seem to require explanation since the cost of advertising must necessarily be added to the price of the goods. Other and larger expenses, however, are reduced or saved. The economy of mass-production is well known. The effects of advertising may be described as mass-selling. Where a specific article is demanded by the public and bought in large quantities, the expense of prevailing upon retailers to offer it for sale is greatly reduced. A commercial traveller, instead of selling by slow persuasion to a few shopkeepers, has only to call on the wholesale trade for orders ; sometimes travellers can be dis pensed with altogether as salesmen, being employed only to stimulate the proper display and exploitation of the goods.
Yet another economic service of advertising to the public is the assistance which it gives to the habit of using branded or trade-marked goods. Manufacturers of these have a natural interest in maintaining a good and uniform standard of quality, whereby the reputation of the brand is upheld. When large sums have been invested in advertising, the motive of self-interest in maintaining quality is proportionately great. If advertising did no more than favour the consumption of branded, and (as a consequence) standardized, wares, it still would have the economic justification which is not inherent in it regarded as a mere aid to competition. But it does more. By giving news of desirable things it actually increases the volume of trade and in that same measure reduces unemployment. This fact is recognized and is turned to account in a highly significant use of advertising during the present century. In a certain number of industries in Great Britain manufacturers have banded them selves together to advertise their product jointly and uncom petitively. This co-operative advertising, as it is called, has been applied to such manufactured products as gas, woollen textiles, tyres, motor-cars and paint ; and such agricultural products as milk, British tomatoes and fruit. The success achieved in these and in other spheres is naturally encouraging other manufactur ing and trading groups to similar acts of combined selling. The most conspicuous advertising campaigns of this character have, of course, been those of the empire marketing board, which enjoys a large government grant. Its operations are yet another instance of State advertising—this time of a productive nature, more agreeable to contemplate than those that served the deadly purposes of war.
Apart from the effects of reasoned exposition, the psychological mechanism by which advertising operates to sell goods may briefly be summarized under two headings.
Constant repetition of a name makes a path in the mind. The consumer, in want of a given commodity, tends to take the path made ready for him by the reiteration of the brand-name.
Association of ideas has an effect somewhat similar on the subconscious mind. If an article be advertised systematically in a tasteful and elegant way, or if verbal or pictorial suggestions of an agreeable kind have been attached to it, the brand-name and an accompanying good opinion of it are entwined among the roots from which volition springs.
A very similar kind of suggestion is exercised by the form in which goods are announced. Modern scientific salesmanship has discovered that emotion plays at least an equal part with cold and deliberate reason in the selection of wares. Attractive and tasteful presentation in both goods and advertisements has an appeal which often proves irresistible.
In order to provide something in the nature of a qualification or certificate of proficiency, public examinations in the theory and practice of advertising were initiated in Great Britain in 1925 by the incorporated society of advertisement consultants, and being continued annually, attracted a considerable number of candidates in each year. They have since been taken over by the advertising association, which represents all branches of the business, and the certificate of either of these bodies is widely accepted as a qualification for employment.
Of all the avocations directly concerned that of the advertising agent is the most important and the most varied; and it is to the work and influence of the great advertising agencies that the vast growth and development of advertising in the last 35 years are chiefly due. The service of a first-class advertising agency to its clients includes direct examination of markets and elaborate research work ; the designing of packages and wrappings for new articles; the invention of selling plans; the formulation of an advertising policy and its embodiment in Press advertisements and sometimes posters; preparation of window-dressing designs and materials and of show-cards, and contracting with news papers, periodicals and hoarding-owners for the supply of space. Yet more important than these is the work, largely carried out by the agencies and also by advertisement consultants, of bring ing to the notice of manufacturers and others proposals for the benefit of their respective businesses by means of national or trade advertising, whereby those who have not yet turned to advertising for the promotion of their business interests are induced to avail themselves of it.
A marked tendency now exists for advertising agents to claim something like professional status and to prescribe rules of conduct for themselves. In Great Britain an institute of incor porated practitioners in advertising has been founded, whose standards of practice are strict.
The agent's functions are a matter of arrangement, but gen erally speaking an advertiser pays for the drawings required for Press or poster advertising unless these are of the simplest char acter. The larger agencies maintain a studio with a supervisor and a sufficient number of artists and draughtsmen for their nor mal requirements. At times of pressure, or when work has to be done for which this staff is not sufficiently well equipped, resort may be had to one of the commercial studios, and advertisers who prepare their own "copy" are regular patrons of these estab lishments. The larger studios sometimes retain commercial artists of reputation, in addition to a whole-time staff of artists, draughtsmen, designers and what are termed lay-out men. The function of the last named is to contrive the skilful arrangement of type, and the well-balanced combinations of pictures and let tering, with which the reader is familiar in advertisements.
The expense of this preparatory work is considerable, and the discounts required by middlemen and retailers are nearly always much larger than the net profit of the producer. In some trades the largest manufacturers find it less expensive to maintain their own shops. The boot-and-shoe and margarine trades of Great Britain are examples. Another alternative is to advertise for direct orders from the public through the post, when the term mail-order trading is used. This expression, like much else in advertising, is American, but the system has also been very highly elaborated in Great Britain. Although orders for small and uncostly articles can be obtained in direct response to ad vertisements in newspapers and magazines, such advertisements are more often used with the object of compiling a list of names for circularization. Where the price is more than a few shillings, the advertisement seldom asks for any remittance, and, if in stalments are to be accepted, often gives no clue to the price, merely offering a catalogue or descriptive pamphlet. Appli cants for this receive very elaborate printed matter, showing signs of careful attention to detail and little, if any, regard for expense. Those who do not respond with an order for the goods advertised receive further circulars and letters according to an organized plan known as the follow-up system.
Such a system requires extreme patience and forethought, no detail being too small to affect results. In the marketing of goods trifles often make perfection. Variations in detail are purposely introduced and examined in the light of their effect on enquirers; even the order in which the enclosures with a follow-up letter are arranged and the intervals at which successive follow-ups are sent out, are the subject of careful experiment. The follow-up process is continued as long as there are profitable returns. As the cost of each letter and its enclosures is con siderable, when sent to a large number of persons, any argument and device which will bring the order to fruition earlier means a proportionate addition to the profits.
Direct circularization of addresses from directories is a variant of mail-order trading if results are sought by post. More fre quently it is employed by large and by small shopkeepers, occa sionally by general advertisers whose goods are distributed through trade channels, though the latter have difficulty in ascer taining whether their circulars bring profitable results or not. Unless a somewhat specialized public is sought, or a very com plete and elaborately illustrated description has to be circulated, very little calculation is required to show that this method is much less economical than Press advertising; but it is a valuable alternative where capital is not available for the latter, or in places where no local paper may be available as an advertising medium; but such places are few and far between.
Until quite recent times, advertisers in the great majority of British newspapers and periodicals laboured under a grievance not yet wholly redressed. Publishers resolutely withheld any information about the net sales of their publications, and per haps even permitted exaggerations as to the actual number of copies printed and sold to stalk about unchecked and assume the dimensions of mere rumour. In consequence, the advertiser rarely knew what measure of publicity his expenditure produced for him. He was in the dark concerning the arithmetic of circulation. A few publishers, however, broke away from the general silence and mystery, and from 1920 onwards the custom of publishing an audited statement of net sales, with the cer tificate of a chartered accountant, has spread rapidly. The insti tute of practitioners in advertising maintains an audit bureau, by which this practice is encouraged. (By net sales is meant the actual number of copies sold and paid for. Circulation is a vague term, but it must be borne in mind that one purchased copy of a paper may have several readers, the whole household in fact.) A partial censorship of advertisements by newspapers has likewise extended, and while only a few publishers assume overt responsibility for everything inserted, nearly all, with the assistance of the advertising association's national vigilance com mittee, take pains to exclude anything to which objection can reasonably be taken.
Great sums are invested by advertisers in the writing and designing of announcements; and what is called copy-writing offers an attractive career to both sexes. The fact must not be overlooked, however, that the trading policy of which adver tisements are the support and expression is more important to success than the advertisements themselves. Good writing and artistic decoration are important when they set forth and adorn some new or striking mode of distribution, where they reveal some new reason for preferring the article advertised, or where they turn the thoughts of the public in a new direction.
Papers issued daily, whether morning or evening, are, on account of their practical and business-like tone (whereby the mood of readers is affected), best suited for the advertising of everyday needs and other commodities ordinarily bought by routine and not with slow deliberation. The daily paper is in some sort a daily guide consulted for information on a number of topics. He who desires to rent a house, to find a servant, to attend a concert, to order coal, to hear of bargains, to hire a car or to buy a dog, turns to the advertisements in his daily paper as a matter of course. Announcements on these subjects almost have the character of news; the paper would be incom plete without them; but they would not be sent for publication unless such advertisements were known to bring replies. The newspaper which carries habitually the largest number of such small advertisements is the one to which more and more are sent. The appearance of numerous "smalls" or classified announce ments, moreover, reacts on the quantity of displayed advertising sent to a paper, it being held that one in which the former appear must be powerful in the locality of publication.
It should be noted that in comparatively recent years in Great Britain the national morning popular paper has extended its geo graphical range and added considerably to its sales, while the evening papers in the provincial towns and cities have increased in power and importance.
Improvements in printing-blocks, mechanically reproducing drawings or photographs, have brought to the daily papers a pre ponderance of illustrated advertisements; and refusal to insert these, once common, is now the reverse. The only limitation placed on them (except on grounds of propriety) is that they be not over-obtrusive. Heavy masses of black are relieved by scor ing them with white lines, and this is often done in the newspaper office itself where something too black has been tendered. The rotary presses upon which daily papers are printed make it diffi cult to produce satisfactory results with great masses of black, or with half-tone blocks if the screen is finer than 5o or 6o lines to the inch. For an explanation of these terms the article PROCESS should be consulted.
The same difficulties do not occur in the slower flat-bed method of printing when smooth paper is used. Hence weekly illustrated periodicals are enabled to give advertisers the benefit of better printed half-tone blocks and in general of more perfect typog raphy. This has led to a great development of illustrated public ity with a corresponding attention to the suggestive value of pictures in advertising.
The greater deliberation with which weekly and monthly period icals are read, their higher price, and the automatic selection of a special public by the nature of the contents, makes these, on the face of them, more suitable for the advertising of expensive wares than are the popular dailies. The latter, by reason of enormously greater circulations, are employed by every class of advertisers, but only those who sell to a public which is entirely artisan can afford to confine their announcements to them. If what may be called the austerer part of the Press be neglected, the richer and more cultured part of the public may be lost. The extension of public advertising has brought home to those who use it, and in some measure to their competitors also, that the real customer of every manufacturer is the ultimate consumer. It is just as needful for this ultimate consumer to be approached through his own especial part of the Press as through the class of shops which he habitually uses. This lends importance to the illustrated weeklies and other "society" papers and the literary Press far in excess of what could be attributed to them on the ground of circulation alone.
Besides periodicals of general interest, many others devoted to restricted subjects exist and have importance for certain ad vertisers. The monthly reviews—papers treating of almost every conceivable science, art and hobby, technical papers for the en gineer and the manufacturer and trade papers for the shop keeper—all have their places in the scheme of Press advertising.
The poster, by reason of its size and the facilities which it affords for the use of colour, has a very powerful effect on the public mind. This effect is an instance of commercial suggestion. The impact, constantly repeated on the memory, of the name on a large coloured bill is almost irresistible. The aim of the adver tiser is exactly that—to make his own brand synonymous with the generic name of the product which he sells. For this reason, newspaper advertisements sometimes contain nothing but the name of the product advertised, with some short phrase which, if associated with it for a period of time, is termed a slogan. As the effect sought is precisely similar to that of many posters, and as such announcements can be displayed before a much larger number of persons for a longer time by means of a poster than by the same expenditure of money in the Press, the poster is often found to be a better implement for the purpose. It is estimated that a commanding display of posters throughout Great Britain and Northern Ireland may be obtained, together with the posters themselves, for £6o,000 a year. An equal preponderance in the Press would, at present rates, cost perhaps not less than £15o,000. This comparison should not be accepted without re membering that the attention received by a newspaper or period ical is much closer and more intimate than that given to a poster. Nor must it be forgotten that the newspaper is bought by the reader and has on that account a value beyond the intrinsic; and further that the newspaper does in most cases enter the home. If more is desired than an instantaneous impact on the mind, the advertising value of the poster falls sharply. In its own sphere, however, it is at present unchallenged.
Improved colour-printing processes and certain details of or ganization have enormously influenced poster-advertising since it first began to have serious commercial importance. Small bills were pasted up out-of-doors at a very early date in the history of printing, as has already been shown. They may be presumed to have been so affixed to walls and gates without permission of the property-owner, and the practice continued in Great Britain until a date well within living memory. A furtive and disreputable trade was carried on until 1863, when Edward Sheldon, a Leeds billposter, introduced the practice of contracting with the owners for the use of wall space. This soon became general, and poster advertising of an organized character may be said to date from that time. Substantial hoardings, erected according to a standard plan and kept in good order by the contractor, with the growing practice of bordering each poster with neutral-tinted paper, have supplemented a vast improvement in design and execution. At first coarsely printed on letter-press machines from wooden type or blocks, usually in black and red, posters made a great stride forward with the rapid development of chromolithography from 188o onwards. Very soon afterwards, a new school of designing from this use began to develop, especially in France. Details of this will be found in the article POSTER.
Other forms of outdoor advertising, especially in the country, have often brought undeserved opprobrium upon the poster. Field boards, displayed to railway passengers beside the route, caused a great outcry on their first introduction into Great Britain about 1890, and it was widely suggested that the objection to them on aesthetic grounds would make them ineffective as adver tisements. This expectation seems to have been unfounded, as one of these advertisers, who reinforced the involuntary attention of passengers by adding a small tablet to each field-sign to show the distance from London, experienced an immediate rise in the sales of the article which he advertised.
The display of roadside and other advertisements where they deface natural scenery, once common, is now passing out of use, not solely as result of legislation, presently to be described, but also through the voluntary action of advertisers. The maxim that an Englishman's house is his castle makes parliament reluc tant to restrain him from putting what he chooses upon the outside of it ; but there are indications of a tendency in at least one trade to get round this difficulty : advertisers of motor spirit and lubri cants are beginning to withhold signboards from owners of filling stations and repair shops in the country, after having removed their signboards from roadside positions and railway bridges.
Large painted signs on gable ends ; sky-signs on the roofs of houses; a variety of illuminated signs, with a growing prepon derance of flash-light effects; mobile devices for shop-windows; boards and enamelled iron signs on omnibuses; paper posters on the sides of carriers' vans ; the rather antiquated expedient of sandwich-men; and motor delivery-vans modelled on the shape of the owner's speciality, enormously magnified, are among the other forms of outdoor publicity familiar to dwellers in towns. Some of these are the subject of legislative restriction, as will be shown.
A minor form of advertisement which nevertheless consumes substantial sums annually is known as the advertising novelty—a small object such as a penknife, cigarette holder, pencil, almanack, note-book or the like, carrying the advertiser's name and message. In the same category are included the ashtrays, match-holders and similar articles, bearing an advertisement, and distributed for use in hotels and restaurants.
Taxes were levied on advertisements in the Press from 1712 to 1853, and, though it is dangerous to prophesy in regard to times of economic stress, are not likely to be revived. The idea of imposing a duty on posters (common on the Continent) is mooted from time to time, generally at the instance of those who dislike them, but the proposal has not yet attracted any chancellor of the exchequer. The growing recognition of adver tising as an economic influence in the betterment of trade is indicated by the abandonment of taxation and the official and in creasing use of advertising by state departments. The British Empire exhibition at Wembley, to which the Imperial Govern ment gave official support and subsidy, was an effort to advertise the Empire by almost every conceivable phase of modern pub licity. And the British industries fair, held annually simultaneously in London and in Birmingham, is advertised by the Government both at home and abroad.
Whatever their subject matter, certain forms of advertisement are forbidden, usually under by-laws of local authorities. By the Advertisements Regulation Act, 1907, such by-laws were author ized for the regulation and control of hoardings over 12f t. in height and for regulating, restricting or preventing the exhibition of advertisements calculated to affect injuriously the amenities of a public park or pleasure promenade, or to disfigure the natural beauty of a landscape. In 1925 the powers were extended to in clude advertisements which would disfigure or injuriously affect the view of rural scenery from a railway, or from any public place or water, or the amenities of any village, or of any historic or public building or monument, or any place frequented by the public chiefly on account of its beauty or historic interest. The Home Office prepared model forms of by-laws, and more than HD° local authorities in Great Britain have exercised their statutory powers.
In congested areas further restrictions are often imposed for the greater safety or convenience of those using the streets. Thus, under the London Traffic Act, 1924, the minister of transport may within the London traffic area restrict the use of sandwich men and other persons in the street for the purpose of advertise ment, if they are likely to be a source of danger or to cause ob struction to traffic; and in 1927 the minister, Col. Wilfrid Ashley, M.P., forbade the use of displayed vehicles for advertising pur poses in certain streets. Within the City of London and the metro politan police district, no person may carry on foot or horseback or any carriage in any thoroughfare or public place any advertise ment to the obstruction or annoyance of the inhabitants or pas sengers (London Hackney Carriage Act, 1853), and by the Metro politan Streets Acts 1867 and 1885 no advertisement except in such form and manner as may be approved by the commissioner of police having jurisdiction in the area, may, within six miles of Charing Cross, be exhibited or distributed in any street by any person on foot or riding in any vehicle or on horseback. In the County of London, by the London Building Act, 1894, and in areas in which the Public Health Acts Amendment Act, 1907, applies, sky-signs as defined by those acts are prohibited. By a by-law made in 1 goo under general statutory powers for the suppression of nuisances, the London County Council, in great measure as a result of observation made at coroners' inquests, prohibited advertisement by searchlight or flash light causing danger to traffic in any street. "Flash light" is defined as a light which alters suddenly either in intensity, colour or direction. A large number of by-laws for the regulation of advertisements have been passed in different parts of Great Britain.
Other advertisements are prohibited by statute because they are themselves an evil .or because they are incidental to evils which the legislature wishes to suppress. Although money-lending is a legitimate trade, it tends to create abuses unless it is severely restricted. In 1892 the sending of an advertisement to any infant inviting him to borrow money was prohibited. Much more drastic restrictions are imposed by the Moneylenders Act, 1927. No person may send to any person, except in response to such person's written request, any advertisement with the name, address or telephone number of a moneylender, or inviting him to borrow, or to enter into any transaction involving the borrowing of, or to apply for information as to the borrowing of money from, a moneylender. A moneylender may, however, advertise in news papers and at an authorized address by poster or placard, but in each case the Act severely limits the contents of the advertise ment. Moreover, an advertisement or document sent in response to a written request must show with due prominence the money lender's authorized name, any other name in which he or a partner was registered under the Moneylenders Act, 1 goo, and must not contain expressions which might reasonably be held to imply that the moneylender carries on a banking business. If the terms of interest are indicated they must be stated at the rate per cent. per annum, or, if otherwise stated, the rate per cent. per annum rep resented by the interest proposed must also be shown.
By the Larceny Act, 1861, advertisements of reward for the return of property stolen or lost must not indicate that no ques tions will be asked or enquiries made, and must not promise to repay the purchaser or pledgee of stolen property. A number of statutes prohibit advertisements relating to betting and lotteries. The most recent is the Ready Money Football Betting Act, 1920. Prize schemes used for advertising are often illegal, as being lotteries. If in a competition skill contributes to the winning of a prize, however, the competition is not a lottery. Indecent and obscene advertisements are penalized by the Indecent Advertise ments Act, 1889.
The law recognizes the value of advertisements to advertisers. Hence for breach of a contract to insert advertisements damages will be given for the loss of business due to the failure to insert the advertisements. Similarly, where advertisement can be shown to be one of the objects of a contract—as, for instance, where an actor is engaged for a theatre of high repute—loss of publicity may be a substantial element in the damages recoverable for breach of the contract.
A summary of laws and regulations dealing with advertisements in certain other countries is contained in an official return issued by the British Home Office in 1903, but no similar return has since been issued.
Sheldon, Poster Advertising (1927) ; Thomas Russell, Commercial Advertising 3rd ed. (1919) ; Prof. Dill Scott, Psy chology of Advertising (1921) ; Carl F. Propson, Export Advertising Practice (1923) ; E. N. Simons, Marketing the Technical Product ( 1924) ; Livingston Lamed, Illustration in Advertising (1925) ; Gilbert Russell, Advertisement Writing (1927) ; R. P. Gossop, Advertisement Design ( 192 j) . (S. W. ; T. R. ; F. G.) In America, the first newspaper was entitled Publick Occur rences both Foreign and Domestick, published in Boston in 1690. This was succeeded in '704 by The Boston News Letter, a weekly publication. The first issue of The Boston News Letter, published April 26, 1704, contained advertisements. It was 4o years before this publication reached a circulation of 30o copies per issue. The early history of advertising, together with numerous sample advertisements of this early period, is well presented in Sampson's History of Advertising.
The Modern Period may be dated from about 1850. The reason for putting the dividing point between the early and modern periods at 185o is the rapid appearance of newspapers and magazines, which made possible the development of modern adver tising on a large scale. Advertising was impossible until printing developed and until people generally learned to read. One reason for the rapid increase in the number and distribution of advertis ing media at this time is probably to be found in the development of transportation systems—railways and waterways. Prior to that time railway lines were limited to restricted areas. There was no national transportation system. To illustrate the difficulties of transportation before that time, and even up to 1870 or 5875, we may quote the following announcement of the Kenosha (Wis consin) Telegraph in Rowell's Directory in 1869:— The town is renowned for the manufacture of wagons, which find a market all the way to the Rocky Mountains, and even to Oregon, being shipped by way of New York.
This shows how difficult it was to distribute goods generally over the country. It is obvious, then, that without the possibility of transporting goods there was no need of advertising media of wide circulation, and furthermore media could not develop a wide circulation because they could not be distributed conveniently or rapidly. During the middle and latter part of the 19th century the development of a national transportation system made possible the ready distribution of goods and publications. About this time also advertising agencies arose whose primary purpose was to serve as brokers of advertising space. They were rather different in this respect from the present advertising agency, which, in addi tion to contracting for space, is, in its best form, an organization giving expert counsel and service regarding marketing and adver tising plans and methods.
During this period the number of magazines and newspapers grew very rapidly, so that in 1861 there were 5,203 magazines, papers and periodicals of all kinds in the United States. Yet ad vertising was relatively limited as compared with the present day. Harper's Magazine had its first advertisement in 1864 ; Scrib ner's in 1872. Magazine advertising on a large scale did not begin until about 186o to 1870. It was stated in 1926 that Harper's Magazine had approximately as many pages of advertising in one year as it had in its first 24 years. At first it was used chiefly as a medium for advertising the Harper publications. Advertising rates at that time began to assume real proportions. Harper's Weekly was receiving $35 an inch for its back page in the 'sixties.
The first advertising agency was established in Philadelphia in 1840 by Volney B. Palmer. Later, offices were established in Boston and New York. Rates and contracts were not standard ized at that time. The agent contracted for a certain amount of space with a publication and then sold it for whatever he could, receiving sometimes as high as 50% of the cost of the space as his commission. Among the better known early advertising agents were V. B. Palmer, S. M. Pettingill and George P. Rowell. In 1938 the United States had about 1,800 advertising agencies. Some 122, including most of the larger ones, were members of the American Association of Advertising Agencies.
It (a) places the responsibility for deception upon the adver tiser, (b) deals with questions of facts about goods rather than opinions and (c) designates the making of untruthful, deceptive or misleading statements a misdemeanour. Up to Feb. 1936 this statute had been adopted in 25 States in substantially the form in which it was originally prepared by counsel for Printers' Ink, and in 13 States in modified form.
In these 13 States the modification which was made in the statute consisted for the most part of the insertion of the words "knowingly" or "with fraudulent intent." It is obvious that this change very considerably weakens the force of the statute. Never theless, the adoption of this statute has been a powerful force in bringing deception, misrepresentation and dishonesty in adver tising under legal control. The Associated Advertising Clubs of the World, now known as the International Advertising Associa tion, the national and local advertising clubs and other organiza tions have been active in pushing the adoption of this or similar legislation, which has been a powerful influence toward the reme dying of objectionable practices. In addition to State legislation a number of larger cities have ordinances intended to check cer tain undesirable advertising practices.
About 1912, the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World at their annual convention adopted the motto "truth in adver tising," and established a National Vigilance committee in the United States, now called the National Better Business Bureau, with the purpose of forwarding higher standards of honesty and reliability in advertising. This committee organized, in connec tion with the various local clubs throughout the United States, local vigilance committees or Better Business bureaus to eliminate objectionable, untruthful advertising. The purpose of the'se bu reaus has been to carry on locally in each city active efforts, simi lar to those of the national bureau, toward the elimination of dishonest and objectionable advertising and related business methods. Up to 1938, such bureaus had been established in over 6o cities, including Boston, St. Louis, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Des Moines, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Spokane, Port land, Ore., and New York city.
About this same time the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World undertook definite educational activity in outlining courses of study and discussions to be conducted by the various local clubs, for the purpose of studying advertising methods and of improving them. A distinct service has been rendered in this connection by the several educational activities of the different local organizations. Colleges and universities began to give serious attention to the study of advertising by establishing well-defined courses of instruction.
About 1870 the only facts generally available regarding circu lation were the statements in George P. Rowell's Directory; and after that time the Ayer Directory was the chief source of infor mation. In order to bring about a somewhat more reliable state ment of circulations at that time, Rowell added a gold mark to the name of the publication if the publisher made an affidavit concerning his circulation. This was accompanied by an offer of $100 to anyone who could disprove the claim made. In general, the audit bureau reports attempt to answer three main questions: (a) How large is the circulation? (b) Where does it go? and (c) How was it obtained? The bureau operates by requiring from its publisher members a so-called publisher's statement every six months. The bureau itself makes an audited report once a year.
The Audit Bureau of Circulations became of great value to advertising, because it made available reliable statements of cir culation covering many different phases. In case of error, either intentional or unintentional, the bureau established certain rules. In case of error, a publisher or advertiser member of the bureau could ask for a re-audit of any publication, if he so desired. If the re-audit proved that the publisher had misrepresented the facts the expense was to be borne by the publisher. This fact being then bulletined to the other members of the bureau, the publisher became subject to suspension and expulsion from the bureau. Up to Aug. 1939, 221 general magazines and periodicals were mem bers of the bureau, 57 farm publications, 26o business publications and newspapers. In addition to publications, 229 national advertisers, 31 local advertisers and 133 advertising agencies were members.
About 1913 there was organized in the United States the Asso ciation of National Advertisers, another important influence in the study and development of advertising practices. Likewise, during that period publishers develOped a distinct consciousness of cen sorship of advertising. A considerable number of publishers took a definite stand with regard to the advertising which they would or would not accept. The announced or stated policy might not be fully lived up to in practice in all instances, but the best evidence of actual progress made in this regard lies in a compari son of the present issues of leading magazines and newspapers with issues of the early years of the century. The improvement is marked. In addition to the elimination of objectionable and doubtful advertising, a considerable number of media went a step further by guaranteeing their advertising in the sense that they would either themselves make good on any misrepresentation or deception which appeared in connection with an advertisement, or would see that the advertiser in question made good. With most of the high-grade media a policy of guaranteeing is substan tially implied, and is almost unnecessary in view of the com mendable care which is exercised in rejecting questionable com modities or irresponsible business houses.
In 1917 the American Association of Advertising Agencies was organized. It contributed materially toward the establishment of standards of practices and uniform methods of procedure. In 1925 it inaugurated a department of research for studying funda mental problems of advertising and marketing. Finally, and per haps most important, an increasing use of research methods devel oped. Here and there these methods appear to be thorough going in finding the facts on which marketing and advertising plans may be based, scientific research and planning taking the place of guesswork.