A NOVELIST'S ADVICE ON ADVERTISING.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 13, 30 January 1937, Page 4

A NOVELIST'S ADVICE ON ADVERTISING.

**£ SuggbSt that ihstead ef usiug so mueh dvefstateiueat In advefttsiug morb tlfle shoiild be ihade df bxact statertiepts of eVen of 6ndefstateirl6nt. Instead of advertising a book as a masterpiette, why not Sdy iflerdiy that it is hbt a bad b6ok, or it is a pretty fair book? Instead of pfOclaimihg that a piay is the f inest that has evef been inade, why fiot advertise it as a decent evening 's entertainxiieht ? The rOStilt Of this poiifey of understatement would be so suceessful that Overybody WOuld iinitate it/' said Mr. Ji B., Priestley, the novelist, ifl. a SpOech repOrted in the ' 'British AdVOrtiSefs' ' "I belieVe iii deinocfaey, but not in the eOiintiflg of headS; ObviOtisly ih sOmS cases, Oiie head is worth f ifty OthefBj 8o we fihd SOiue newspa prs, tufned out in vast numbers by iuaehifl.es, Whieh are rOad by millions of half wits, half dead thrdugh their sufrOUiidihgS. True, their" ntOney iS aS good as othef people % but that is not the whole point. h "Thete af6 othef papefs whieh are read by people who are really aliVe, people who read them ahd take notiee of What is printed itt thera, and it seems to me that those afe the people adveftisers shouid get hoid of. It is a shoft-sighted point of Vlew to avoid the progressive thing ahd pdur your money into the mechanical fhifigi "Advertisifig is a cblOssal fOrOe and has a great fespohsibiiity, at^d you, as adveftisers,. ought to take care to be oh the fight side4 t£ yoU set yourselves to make friends with those eagef and e'fithusiastic people who are really alive, you would ndt only Moll yoUr gOods, but help to make a much better England."