DISHONEST ABVERTIS

NZ Truth, Issue 123, 26 October 1907, Page 4

DISHONEST ABVERTIS

• — -V THE IUNKUM OF « Blf LIFE." f The Tricky Tactic! Banks Ltd. \ i Ah Example »f Gl»ri»us liceil "Hoaesty is the best p»licj our school cop^-kooks assure! a few years' experience m tkij ed world soon shatters that •: ed maxim of boyhood's days.; esty is not the best policy ah a business deal, and if ever*' ness man was honest, and coni kis business on strictly honesty well, to say the least of if could expect Judgment Day. just at present, "Truth" has! it a newspaper published by \ Banks, Ltd., Wellington, and* "Business Life." It is the 0 number, and is described a monthly magazine for businessi bankers, book-keepers, and a<* ants," but m reality, it is a' advertising sheet for Banks \ mercial College, for Banks' pvit and stationery establishment^ fact, it is a journal devoted to V glorious advantages to be deriv from dealing with Banks. Banks i s first, the rest nowhere, and as Banks nays for it all. there can be no grumbling or growling from the outsider. "Business Life.'.' however, trespasses on dangerous territory. It sets out m what one presumes t-- be an editorial to reform the. rotterness of American commercial life m so far as HONESTY IN ADVERTISING is concerned. In advertising honesty m this direction "Business Life" has unheeded the advice of Solomon. It has dug a Dit, and, what is still far worse, it has tumbled into it. Now. "Business Life," 'settinp out as a reformer of commercial rottenness, takes to task some smart Yankees, who are booming the Gregg's system of shorthand for what' is is worth, and the fact that one Guilr bert Pitman, nephew of Isaac Pitman the inventor of the shorthand system bearing his ncime, lias become a convert to. the Gregg system, has been used for what it is worth. ;*nd "Business Life" properly shows that it is not worth much. That is jrst at preseut beside the question of honesty m advertising. The student of any system of shorthand has 10 work ni.n'ht and day to become perfect m the art. He must burn the midnight oil and give assklious attention to his study ere he i-an e\ ?r hope to attain perfect. There can be no half measures 'with it. Tie must be a master or a messer. The Yankees have accordingly been treei rii for Greggs and booming it against hitman., and Banks professes to t;«'^h both systems. It advertises Ihat. it instructs m both, and v;e. find m "Business Life" that Pitman's i^ while Gre-n-r's is damned with faint praise. "Truth" doesn't r^rsj one iota whicli system is the l;est. but what it is concerning itself in&fc now is Bank's honesty m nfivertfeiner. "Business. Life" ffives American methods. "Truth" proposes to -h- & Wellington methods as 'pmnlovrel "Hv Banks m "Business Life." Tnri i ?; to another "ace we find a sr-leivdid samnle of the honest methods of n<lvertisin"- emnloved hv Banks. Ltd., m booming Banks' various businesses m "Business Life," and one wo"li be inclined to think that the business life of Wellington is wrapt up m vßanks, Ltd. Banks head office is situated at 11 Grev-etre^t. as °et out m a notice headed "Ourselves." Then comes a block, taking m the Queen's Statue, the Pier Hotel, AND NATHAN'S NEW BUILDINGS. Over the Pier Hotel Banks have a binr eye-catching advertisement announcing that that is the head office. The natural result is, of course, that readers of "Business Life,"- the same paper which advocates honesty m advertising, are led to believe that Nathan's big building the largest m Wellington without a doubt, is wholly and . solely occupied' by Bants, printers and stationers and commercial college. Now, it looks as 8 Banks do not practise what they preach. While pretending :to teach, a couple of systems of shorthand, it eoes bald-headed for one and atms«fc the other. Then, by a^ trick, that firm, through its mouthpiece "Birsi* ness Life," commit a breach of th* code of commercial honesty by pub* lishing a photograph of its head of* fice calculated to deceive others- tlmfc Nathan's buildinsrs aro eolely oeco* pied by Banks, and itj would, no -doubt, claim the Pier pub, but for the f not that that pub cannot be eon verted into a commercial college. Her© is dishonesty m advertising with n vet** 'seance. "Business Life" should b«i consistent, if nothing else. Commercial dishonesty is a "matter whfcK no newspaper leading article can ever hope to reform. The rottennc« that pervades commercial life, vrhether it be m dishonest-' advertising methods. / . THE GREASING OF PALMS WITH SECRET COMMISSIONS, the diddling of the Customs, and the hundred and one rascally and wretched tricks adopted to swell profits and dividends can never be remedied until some revolution is effected m this world. "Business Life," m howling a-bont dishonest methods, is barking up a sour apple tree, particularly when it takes the Yank to task on his dishonest advertising methods, while itself is a shining example of glorious inconsistency an* dishonest dodgery.