Arizona republican., 1915-06-15
STRONG PLEA : FOR HONOR IN
 ADVERTISING
Frank StockGale Declares Truthful Statements Will Build Business; Illus trated Lecture Before Phoenix Adclub

"Advertising should be first con- sidered a business builder. and then a business getter," said Frank Stock dale at an open meeting last even ing of the Phoenix Ad-Club at the Hotel Adams roof garden, during the course of a strong address on Why Truth in Advertising Wins"
 Advertising is built too much on precedent" said the speaker. and the old system of haggling. and
 bartering cannot help but crop out
 in the present system of comparative prices, and in the overuse of super lative. as applied to describing mer- chandise.
 Public Growing Wise
 "The public is becoming wiser every day to the fact that merchants are not philanthropists. but only busi- Eess men, and an over-statement of prices or description, coupled with an extravagancy in superlative. while may produce immediate response from the buying public. will not in the long run benefit the business.
 In fact" said Mr. Stockdale. fin my recent journeys over the country, from san Francisco to Boston, I have found the most prosperous stores to be those in which the ad- vertiser plays fair with the public without resorting to doubtful state ments to sell the goods"
 Advertising is growing more de Pendable every day as a result of natural law-the inherent honesty in our business men and their common sense. If we can eliminate the dis honest, the misleading. the indecent from advertising. we will double or triple, or quadruple the confidence of the public in advertising.
 This means that more people will read and respond to advertising than at present. It means that advertisers will get better results from adver Using than they are now getting. T. means that the public will derive greater benefit from advertising than they get under present conditions.
 Store policies came in for a good share of Nr. Stockdale's talk. and a too abrupt change in any policies 
 On the matter of comparative val ues, :he speaker emphasized the fact that there are three kinds of value utility value desire value and sales value, and that the confusion of these different kinds of value was the great stumbling block that caused SO much confusion in advertising values. There is no standard of value that corresponds to n standard of weight and measures. and for this very reason value claims must be based to a greater or less degree upon the judgment and op- inion of the individual merchant
 That the mediums see the situa- ton clearly Is emphasized by the fact that magazines farm papers, posters and newspapers are elimin- ating objectionable advertising. in some cases. slowly, but in all cases surely
 For the Benefit of All
 Objectionable advertising should be condemned and weeded out by the consistent advertiser, because it is the confidence the consistent ad- vertisers create and maintain that makes the objectionable advertising possible and successful. It is true that the objectionable advertising de- strOys confidence in all advertising and therefore the consistent adver- tiser is not getting the same value for his advertising dollar he would get if all advertising were depend able. Further. as universal confi- dence in advertising grows, more and more concerns operating on a narrow margin of profits can afford to advertise, and as a rule their pro- ducts or service are among the most useful to the community"
 This fight against objectionable ad- vertising is in the interest of every man who is in business. It vitally affects the future or all business. It is therefore entitled to the active support of every citizen.
 The government is fighting fraudu- lent advertising through the post office department. The publishers are fighting fraudulent advertising by censoring copy.
 The Associated Advertising Clubs of the World are fighting fraudulent advertising through many vigilance These great organized are fighting in the inter est of better business. The one thing needed to make the fight more eff fective is the personal interest of the individual business man and the | individual consumer in eliminating not only fraudulent advertising, but l all advertising that tends to destroy | Lhe confidence of the public in the | printed word.
 Examples are Shown
 The latter part of the lecture was | by slides showing ex- imples of good and bad advertising. | proving to the audience that adver Sements bearing truthful and non comparative pritces and without re- 'erences to competitors and support d with frank editorial statements store policies, would do more to really build a business man han an ad with a cut-price appeal ,r descriptives that savor of the un- plausible or incredible
 This lecture was the second of a series of lectures being delivered by Frank Stockdale in Phoenix this | season. Stockdale is the official lec- urer of the Educational Committee If the. Advertising Clubs of America md is delivering a series of five lec- .ures on allied subjects before forty