ECONOMIST TALKS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 309, 21 March 1928, Page 16

ECONOMIST TALKS

DR. NEALE ON ADVERTISING An economist’s view of publicity was given to the Auckland Advertising Club yesterday by Dr. E. P. Neale, D.Sc., M.Comm., LL.B., secretary of the chamber of commerce. The speaker explained that he was entirely ignorant of the inside of the advertisers’ art, but that he would consider social problems raised by publicity. An economist, he said, had been described as one who had studied the way in which people got their incomes, and the way they spent them. Years ago, before transport and production were made so efficient, there was no problem of advertising, because household necessities found limited but assured markets. Now, however, it was a buyer’s world. The seller could no longer sit in Asiatic dignity and wait for customers; he had to chase the buyer. Selling had become a profession. With the vast production of cheap goods, the demand had to be kept steady by advertising. Most people agreed that it paid to advertise, but they realised that there was a point when more expenditure gave no increase in sales. This was a problem. One of the social benefits from advertising was the cheapness of newspapers and magazines, Advertising, said Dr. Neale, was capable of debasing public taste and morals by creating a demand for bad articles, but it was also able to raise standards of health and happiness by making known good articles.