“SMOKE LESS”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 October 1940, Page 2

“SMOKE LESS”

o APPEAL TO GERMAN WOMEN. Advertisements in Nazi newspapers tell a story of life in Germany not mentioned, or at least not emphasised in the editorial columns. Sham coffee is more advertised than champagne. Substitute products offered include tea, honey, pudding powder, egg powder, soap (mainly sand), floor polish, mayonnaise and glycerine. Few cigarette firms advertise, for tobacco is so short that men get only ten cigarettes a day and women are told “Every cigarette you smoke less is one more for the men at the front. The war has resulted in a marked increase in three classes of advertisement —matrimonial, schools of language, and death notices. Most provincial newspapers carry a whole page of matrimonial offers. In an important Hamburg newspaper more than half the language school advertisers offer to teach English. One teacher is called Herr Cameron. Death notices for those killed at the front are theoretically forbidden, but many families find a way of getting round this. Most papers have a page of death announcements surrounded by a quarter-inch black border, with a reproduction of the iron cross. A new type of advertiser who has sprung up since the war began is the one who fears a depreciation of the mark and another inflation. Purchase of real and house property is under very strict control, so this class of investor- offers to buy all sorts of goods of a more or less permanent value. This includes old furniture, works of art, cameras, microscopes, field glasses, pianos, carpets and furs. In all classes of newspaper the section devoted to “Situations Vacant” is the largest. On Saturdays papers like the "Frankfurter Zeitung” publish up to 12 pages of them.