Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-03-19
PARIS TO FIGHT.
Quartistic Poster Display by Salon
Exhibit of Artistic Owes.

Ii YOU drop twenty dollar bill oil
the Paris sidewalk you can be arrest
ed for incumberins the street With
paper even if NoU throw it in the
gutter. Such is the new law for the
beauty Of Paris.
1t forbids the throwing or dropping
on the streets. side walks, cutters,
fountains, benches or promenades OF
all papers, printed or non printed:
prospectuses. envelopes. pastboards,
boxes, fruit skins or vegetable residue:
but, in particular, it is law against
the millions of advertising handbiiis.
which. sllurrying in the wind. spread
everywhere. to be trodden into igno-
bic muddy white and colored staines.
soiling the beauty of the Paris street.
No longer do poor fellows make a
living on street corners thrusting on
the negligent public the printed pro-
posals of dentists. moving pictures
and pedicures Such handbills may
still be tlistributed-the communica
ton of written or printed papers is
one of the rights Of man which the
revolution bled for-hnt since the new
law the public has a comic fear to ae-
cept them.
The French government wishes to
encourage art in street advertise
ments. When pictorial posters are ar
tistc, the public taste is soothed and
uplifted, foreign visitors find the beau
tiful streets free from note of discord.
But. note, the native poor are even
more concerned.
The street is the parlor of the
poor" says the poet Rostand. The
rich, in their automobiles, can hurry
through dirty streets and shut their
eyes to advertising vulgarity; but
when the poor have an hour of leisure
the street is their parlor. salon, mu-
scum. Why hang its walls with ug-
illness and banality?"
The author of "Chantecler' as adj
yertising specialist need not astonish
YOU the astronomer Poincard. cousin
of the prime minister, has even analy-
zed the principles.
Pictorial advertising has two OBJ
jects, says the sublime mathemati-
elan. FIRST, to attract attention,
second, to fix an obsession. haunting
of the mind. But in order for the OBJ
| session to be fruitful the memory
| must connect the advertised object
with the haunting picture and certain
other details, as its use. its place OF
sale. etc. There should be no subcon-
scious effort to forget. as when the
| impression is ugly. distasteful OF
merely banal"
Whence the mathematician con-
| cludes for simple beauty and harmony
to produce lasting returns in posters
| Also, if posters be really admitted
-. n. H.,
of advertising will become part of the
art critics baggage. The merits not
| of a massage cream or a mincemeat
| but the obsessing beauty of Roubille'
or Leandres' posters of them, will OBJ
tain solemn discussion. 1t will be
| well worth while to order an art pos
/ ter.
| The idea is. OF course. to give spe
cial hall in the salon to the mastery
laffiches whose color -harmonies anG
lsubtle surprises and discords in righ'
measure are making the Paris street
Hook again like flower garden, wherf
lthey are not spoiled by the Others.
THE salon has already admitted nev
Tart jewelry, decorative house furniture
book bindings and even women
lgoWns exhibited for their artistic dee
loration, Poster maquettes have beer
admitted to the department of designs
So it is only a step to full-sized color
prints.
Yet the great advertisers of Pari
have nothing to learn from tn
American. whose vogue was necessar
lily temporary Habitually they us
entire pages, half pages and quartz
pages to advertise their current bust
Iness.
The daily paper is the great field 0
Partisan Advertising Pictorial post
lers are used periodically TO obtain eff
fleets Of surprise and novelty,
The idea of a poster salon is no
new Every now and then a grea
Paris advertiser seeking new talent
will offer in an open competition
prizes that aggregate quardrupl
what he might have to pay an affich
specialist for studied maquette.
The French of the Paris street alst
an esthetic society that seeks to abol
ish eyesores is now proposing to es
, tablish similar prizes in poster salons
where the jury shall give their vote