VALUE OF ADVERTISING.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17985, 2 April 1930, Page 6

VALUE OF ADVERTISING.

INFLUENCE ON THE PUBLIC. MIGHT HAVE AVERTED WAR. AUCKLAND, Wednesday. “It is quite possible that had £200,000 been spent on the most effective kind of advertising in 1914, the war might have been averted,” stated Mr H. A. Lawrence, to members of the Auckland Advertising Club yesterday' afternoon. He cited this as an example ol’ how great an influence advertising had over the public in general. lie said that it was a study of human habits and ideas, and a common sense application of the information gained. It was the link between the producer and the consumer. From being a “back-door” method of selling goods it had become nothing less than an economic necessity, and for better or for worse it had come to stay. People were affected by what they saw, and by what they saw the most clearly they were obviously affected the most. Consequently, the best kind was that which took the eye, and which put the selling proposition from the point of view, not of the producer, but of the consumer. Contrary to the opinion of most people it- did not necessarily mean increased 'costs. The resultant increased turnover was in the nature of a balance. Not to advertise, Mr Lawrence said, was something like pulling the blind down over a window to save dressing it. Finally, said Mr Lawrence, the future of advertising was large, and how large it was impossible to say. It was attracting to its ranks men prominent in all walks of life, from the commercial sphere to that of literature and art. It was the easiest way to spread important information. He instanced the warning published against influenza germs and against disease in general. it brought the knowledge home that general comforts of life were available for every individual in a way that had never been possible before.