Agag Was Here

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 495, 17 December 1948, Page 10

Agag Was Here

WALKING delicately round the 3ZB. Round Table the other night, Messrs. Taylor, Rollo, and Manning tip-toed into Is Advertising Wasteful and Uneconomical? It was evident that commeteial broadeasting Was not going to tear up its meal-ticket for the sake of a little discussion. Messrs. Taylor and Rollo said that advertising was informative and a service to consumers. It kept the retailer and manufacturer on their

toes to see that the service promised came up to the mark (the Standar Mark?). It was colourful. It meant that under free competition the consumer was king. It meant freedom of choice, which is a part of our heritage of freedom. It was an industry of very great importance in its own right, In the U.S.

it ranked between butter and boots. And, finally, advertising was necessary to dispose of mass production, Mr. Marining was not quite convinced. He thought competitive advertising was wasteful, although he agreed that the consumer must be informed what sort of goods were available. His conclusion seemed to be that the effort put into advertising would serve society better if directed into more productive channels, The Chairman summed up cautiously, saying that market research had undoubtedly made advertising a much more exact science, and the four gentlemen stole away over the unbroken eggs which carpeted the studio floor, The largest and most dubious egg is surely the morality of the whole business. There

is no doubt that advertising is highly successful and more exact than it used to be, but is it moral to batter the consumer into buying something he does not want or need by continually suggesting the fear of, say, social ostracism?