9. Cooperative public. sentiment campaigns.—Dif fering only in magnitude from public sentiment cam paigns conducted by single corporations, is the cam paign carried on by a group of interests operating co operatively when they are confronted by the common necessity of taking their case to the people. A recent spectacular example was the effect of the leading railroads of the company, assisted by nine advertising agencies, to avert threatened labor troubles in the summer of 1916. Seventeen thousand newspapers were used to carry the railroads' case to the public. Fourteen thousand of these were weeklies reaching people in small communities.
10. Size of advertisements in public sentiment cam paigns.—With few exceptions campaigns to influ ence public sentiment are comparatively short. No matter how closely the point at issue may affect the public's interests, newspaper readers are likely to tire quickly of a controversy carried on by means of ad vertisements. Accordingly, the message of the ad vertiser must be presented boldly, quickly and in as striking a manner as possible. This ordinarily re quires the use of large space. The public sentiment advertiser wants to be sure that most of the readers of a paper will see his advertisement and that they will read it. Large size advertisements with attrac tive white space display are the best methods of ac complishing this purpose. Furthermore, the story is seldom a short one; if it is put in small space it is likely to be crowded and to be forbidding in appear ance. Many public sentiment campaigns use full pages only; others are able to get effective publicity in somewhat smaller space. Only in rare cases can a successful attempt be made to sway public senti went by means of small single or double-column ad vertisements.
H. A campaign. to advertise unique use of advertising was exemplified in the cam paign begun by the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World in 1915, to tell what advertising has done for the country and to urge the purchase of advertised goods. Magazine and newspaper space was widely used with attractive display to advertise advertising. The result of a campaign of this sort cannot be measured; public sentiment is an intangible thing that is slow in crystallizing, and often slow in expressing itself. No campaign to build good-will can measure its returns in dollars and cents. Never theless the power of advertising has been proved; and, if any cause is worthy, there can be no question that well-planned advertising, properly conducted, can go a long way toward swinging public sentiment in its favor.
12. Cooperative campaigns for specific industries. —Akin to public sentiment campaigns are the cam paigns conducted cooperatively by various industries to increase the consumption of the products of those industries. Among the industries that have at tempted on a large scale to increase consumption have been the fruit growers, various groups of lumber in terests, cement manufacturers and the producers and distributers of dairy products.
Probably the most successful and spectacular of these campaigns is the one conducted by the Cab fornia Fruit Growers' Exchange. As early as 1896, this organization of growers of oranges and lemons adopted the "Sunkist" trade-mark and began to mar ket fruit cooperatively. This organization acts as a clearing house for its members and markets the fruit at actual cost. Seventy-five branch offices were or iginally established in the principal cities thruout the country. These officers were in daily telegraphic touch with headquarters, and kept the home office informed of the state of the local fruit markets. They saw that shipments to each district paralleled local demand, thereby freeing the industry from the vio lent price fluctuations that always accompany the marketing of a perishable product when no organized attempt is made to correlate supply and demand.
The Exchange began advertising in 1900. In 1916, its advertising appropriation had nearly reached the $500,000 mark. In the decade between 1905 and 1915, the population of the United States increased twenty one per cent. In the same period the consumption of California oranges increased seventy-four per cent. The California Fruit Growers' Exchange for wards nearly seventy per cent of all the citrus fruit shipped from California. The operating cost to the shippers represents one and six-tenths per cent of the gross sale, with an additional charge of six-tenths of one per cent for advertising. It is said that the mar keting cost of the California Fruit Growers' Ex change is less than that for any other commodity, re gardless of its nature. The success of the Exchange is a striking tribute to the value of organization, backed by vigorous, persistent advertising.