Broadcasting and Advertising

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21410, 28 February 1935, Page 12

Broadcasting and Advertising

I The Broadcasting Amendment Bill specifically provides against the broadcast of commercial advertising from any stations; but this wholesome provision did not escape criticism in the House. The Labour members who attacked it found little or nothing to say in favour of radio advertising; indeed, approval did not exceed Mr Armstrong's tepid opinion that " adver- " tising over the air was going to "hurt nobody but the newspapers." But the last phrase exposes the real motive for these members' support. It is fairly clear that they feel some sort of animus against the newspapers; it is quite plain that they thoroughly mistake the stand of the newspapers in the matter. The member for Timaru, for example, declared that he knew why advertising was forbidden; it was because the broadcasting service would " compete with the news- " papers' monopoly." They know, he added, " what their opposition is, " and they are out to stop it." Now this is such manifest rubbish that it is surprising to find even Mr Carr picking it up and laying it before the House. The newspapers' " monopoly" is contested by roadsigns and hoardings, by wall advertising and posters, by sky signs, by screen advertising, and by the postal distribution of leaflets, circulars, pamphlets, and catalogues; and the' newspapers have protested, not against any of these rival mediums of advertising as such, but against the ugly abuses and offences frequent in the use of one of them. In this protest they have stood with such disinterested organisations as the Scapa Society and the Society fo. the Preservation of Rural England. Their objection to radio advertising is equally well grounded and is, in fact, the objection of intelligent listeners and students of broadcasting systems generally. Broadcast advertising must either be a total waste of air-time or an abuse of it. The abuse need not always be so vulgar or so silly as it is at times in the United States, where, a competent observer reported, " the " most grotesquely offensive matter "is sometimes broadcast"; but there will always be abuse, of one degree or another, when advertising slips in and arrests or confuses the artistic and educational function of broadcasting. The newspaper can publish news and comment and advertisements together; its services are parallel and simultaneous, yet independent. The broadcasting station cannot begin to cry out readymade trousers without letting everything else go hang; and the distinction is vital.