MR GLADSTONE ON ADVERTISING.

Dunstan Times, Issue 740, 23 June 1876, Page 3

MR GLADSTONE ON ADVERTISING.

Mr Gladstone attended the annual meeting of tlie 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 society, said the institution operated directly in the formation of character, and what hut that was the end for which they lived. It was not to erect great and splendid works, it ; was not oven to constitute civilised societies, it was to build up individual characters that they came into the world. All other reasons were but means to an end. Referring to the report he said “We see here that you aro not deemed unworthy of the valuable, or I may say the invaluable assistance of the press ; but in the present instance, whether it be owing to the absorption of human energy in other directions which seem to have greater spontaneous attraction, or to whatever due, it would seem that even the effective reporting ot 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, but it is one very difficult to handle. It is scarcely possible to handle it without going to a very great expense, and if it cannot be handled without going to a very great expense, it at once appears that it cannot he used effectively on behalf of a small institution. The power of this mode of gaining publicity is enormous. It seems, 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 absolutely many times over in succession, the same thing in the same newspapers, with the prominent word printed in large letter. This betokens a yery singular state ot the public mind. It shows that there is, relatively, a certain amount of dullness with reference to these matters, and a great keenness of attention which no one expects to get, unless by, as it were, a great many strokes 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 are oven those not adversely disposed who think of those remarkable operations of Messrs Moody and Sankey last 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 wholesale advertising, which, until quite recently, was better known to the inventors of certain descriptions of blacking, and certain kinds of medicine.