The Daily News. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23. THE UNCONQUERABLE ADVERTISER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 246, 23 February 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23. THE UNCONQUERABLE ADVERTISER.

"Years ago u bold but aesthetic member of the House of Representatives either in- | trodueed or threatened to introduce a Bill prohibiting certain kinds of advertising. Its chief object was not to kill objectionable advertisements ■ — which have entirely disappeared from New Zealand —but to preserve the beauty of Nature. He drew pathetic pictures of the wayside king of' the forest, from which screamed the invitation to "Take Tripe's Tabloids for Tummy Troubles," and the moss-decorated rock whose native grandeur was sullied with an appeal to use "Sinker's Sowing Machines," or to make home happy with an unpuncturable tyre. But, of course, he ""was laughed out and no newspaper, at least, will throw a brick at any kind of advertising. The Wellington City Council is an aesthetic body which permitted a dreadful barn—the old tramway sheds—to remain on a valuable section for years, in the meantime doing some strenuous work in making other people remove debris and insisting that the city be made beautiful. So when it instituted the best car service in the Southern Hemisphere it decided that no remarks about "Purple Pills for Private Persons" should desecrate the cars even though such remarks would bring in £2OOO a year. There is a revival at the moment, and a possibility that Somebody's Soap will get a look in and that the passenger who wants to go to the Athletic Park will be confused with advice about cocoa, safety razors, baby food or liver mixture. The earth is too smalt for the advertiser, and the "sky sign" is already a glorious feature of American cities. An ingcnius American person already throws a remark about his cotton on the night sky with a huge lantern, and we in New Zealand have noticed .balloons carrying weird 'devices showing that "Wowlcr's Whisky" is the best in the world. Cbme to think of it, much of the outside modern advertising is more interesting than much of the inside story writing, and there is an authentic record of a gentleman raising his liat to a corset poster, believing the very life-like lady of the picture to be a living friend. The enterprising "fiend" who assails the wilderness and plants an appeal about a corn cure on the bole of an isolated tree is a friend to the wandering traveller, linking him by a few familiar words with the civilisation that has been left behind. The man who has seen the chief of a remote Kaffir kraal wearing as hi 3 proudest distinction an enamel label with "Moonlight Soap"*on it (torn from the scenery), will understand what comfort the brave pioneers of advertising carry with them. In the near future the everlasting stars and the poor old moon will pale into insignificance as evening decorations, beside the electrical statements inreference to new millinery carried by aeroplanes. Fortunately, although most of the hoardings on earth have already been hired, no one yet has been allowed to "let" advertising air-space. The corTierinsr of the air might occupy Piefpont Morgan in his spare moments. It does not seem to have occurred to the proprietors of any of the goods people will buy if they are reminded that oceangoing steamers offer a vast field for advertising enterprise. There is enough hoarding on a ship like the "Oceanic" to give every patent medicine in the universe a couple of yards. Then, again, if railway stations are let out in sections to advertisers, why not railway trains? Even the drivers might have a neat advice about "Reno's Fruit Salt" on their collars or a word or two on "G.R. Jim's Hair Restorer" on the capband. It is remembered that a famous pill firm once bought the advertising rights of a huge corridor leading to a great London Exh'bition, and also 250 stairs, each about 25 feet long. At intervals of one yard the millions of people who saw the exhibition were bidden to "Take Pilk" The owner of the pills died worth several million pounds, but the caretaker of the great corridor died at Colney Hatch. Which reminds one that the public pavements are not sufficiently used for advertising purposes, and that municipalities might with justice let pavement space to wealthy firms.