MR GLADSTONE ON ADVERTISING.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume IV, Issue 402, 19 July 1876, Page 3

MR GLADSTONE ON ADVERTISING.

Mr Gladstone attended the annual meeti ing of the supporters of the Society for the Distribution of Charity to Distressed Persons, held in London lately, and, in moving the adoption of the report,after recommending the necessities of the sooiety, said the institution operated directly in tho formation of oharaoter, and what bat that was the end for which they lived.. It was not to erect great and. splendid works, it was not even to constitute civilized eocieties, it was to build up individual characters that they came into the world. All other reasons were but means to an end. Eeferring to the report he Faid : — "We see here that you are nob deemed unworthy of the valuable, or I may say the in 1 valuable assistance of the press ; but in the present instance, whether it is owing to the absorption of human energy in other directions which seem to have greater spontaneous attraction, or to whatever due, it would eeeni that even the effective reporting of the proceedings of such an institution do not avail to give it its proper place in the mind of the public, unless it takes advantage of the machinery of what is called advertising. Now this advertising is undoubtedly a very effective instrument. The power of thismode of gaining publicity is enormous. It Beeme, if we consult those who have been most accustomed to work successfully this very extraordinary instrument, that it depends wholly upon producing an impression on the public mind by iteration, by repetition of the same thing. To see the growth of this very singular vehicle we must observe what has struck the eye of everyone in the late years as an entire novelty — that now it is a common thing to repeat, not only at intervals and from day to day, but to repeat many times over in succession, the same thing in the same newspaper, with the prominent word printed in large letters. 1 his bete kens a very singular state of the public mind. It shows that there is, relatively, a certain amount of dulness with reference to these matters, and a great keenness of attention which no one expectß to get, unless by, as it wore, a great many Btrokes of the hammer, which compels people to notice what is going on. This machine has been used lately with enormous effect in certain great religious movements, and there aje even those not adversely disposed who think of tLose remarkable operatioDß of Moody and Sankey laßt year in London, that they could have had no considerable success, nor could have obtained a place in the general view of the public, unless sustained with the same energy and pertinacity of wholosale advertising, which, until recently, was better known to the inventors of certain descriptions of blacking' and certain medicines.