New-York tribune., 1919-04-06
Advertising

OF our many inventions none is more
American, more intimately part of the
American way of thinking and living.
than advertising. The flying word of
craftsmanship is one Of our great Ameri-
can institutions. 1t expresses one Of our
elemental national traits. You may like
1t or dislike it, you may be amused or in
structed, but if you are a true American
you are not Indifferent to it.
The story of the development of this
great engine is long one, and will prob
ably never be written. Historians are
busy with superfcialities like dates and
events But the span Of years covering
its growth and large part of its essence
were interestingly commemorated in the
golden jubilee of N. W. Aver & Son, the
country's oldest advertising agents, cele-
brated at Philadelphia last week.
To some modern advertising is mere
stimulant to buying. This was perhaps
its first mood, as quackery was the first
method of medicine. The old trickery
still survives, dishonesty and desire to
cheat lurk in many an appeal to the un-
wary. But the growth of American ad-
vertising has been consistently away
from such tendencies, and in late years
1t has become a constructive force for
honest manufacture and honest sales
manship. You cannot possibly advertise
a wooden nutmeg on any large scale
The most you can do with bad stuff is to
sell once and clear out. The whole modern
theory is to regard the bulk of adverts-
ing as a capital investment, based on
square dealing and good will, and de-
signed slowly to upbuild business or
trademark in which people may trust.
The modern expenditure for publicity
would be absurd were it not founded on
honesty and fair play.
Education is not too big a word to ap-
ply to modern, intelligent advertising. 1t
educates every one it touches. The or
ganization is put upon its honor and re-
quired to study and develop in order to
live up to its assertions. The public
reads and compares and tests and pays.
Current manufacture of all kinds is
largely reflex from the public through
advertising departments They are no
longer mere selling forces, but building
forces as we'll.
At the Philadelphia celebration Mr..
Aver mentioned the fact that he was
trained by his father to be an edu-
Gator. That is more than a coinci-
dence. The educator notably shows in
the national advertising that Mr.. Ayers
company has developed
The man who reads the automobile
advertisements, let us say, reads them
not necessarily because he has any i'm
mediate thought of buying a car, but
because cars are among our most in
teresting American things and he wants
to know what the latest news of them
is. If new invention is discovered
or is being tried out he wants to know
of it, He wants to know all sides of
the question Therefore, he reads all
the "ads." He find in them much in
formation that is not in the news col
umns.
The Tribune has sought to enlarge
the usefulness, the dignity and the po-
tency of advertising. We may call that
a function-thc business function of a
newspaper. But back of it lies the
faith that business in it's essence is hon.
est and that success itself is clean. And
our experience has been that all evil
dence to the contrary is illusory. Dis
honesty is unintclligcnt and unintelli-
gence cannot pay in this country.