The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1922-05-11
ADVERTISING AS
Ann ETHICAL FORCE
By Charles Henry Macintosh, Presi-
dent, Associated Advertising
Clubs of the World

/ ss.sG SlUOS Ol Cnc w OTlQ 4'S
Advertising, as an Ethical Force, is
not yet fully appreciated by many of
those who employ it constantly even
lin its higher manifestations. The
misunderstanding power Of honest ad-
vertising has long been recognized by
forward-l -looking merchants and manu-
facturers, but not all have come to
see advertising as the creator Of a
new sense of the essentially for hon
esty in business. 1t was seen some
years ago that advertising must be
true if it is to be trusted, and that it
must be trusted if it is to be produc-
tive Of profitable results-and from
that thought-seed has sprung the
present tree of Misunderstanding
Advertising, however, is merely the
reflection of the thing advertised in
terms of the sense and morality Of
the advertiser. Back of honest ad-
vertising there must be honest busi-
ness, and so the Notwithstanding
movement was, in reality, a fore
shadowing, or mirroring, of a new
conception of Honesty-in-Busin
based upon a scale of ethical values
never before generally applied in the
processes of trade. ,'.- .'.--
"Caveat emptor!" let the buyer be-
ware, has been the rule Of trade thru
out the centuries. 1t might continue
to be the rule today, were it not that
advertising, with its indefinite multi
plication of the power and response
bility of the individual trader, acted
as mental microscope on the rela-
tions between buyer and seller; re-
vealing the fact that the continuity Of
these relations, under conditions Of
aggressive competition for the pur-
chasing power Of the buyer, must al
ways rest upon the determining fac
tor of his GOODWILL. Wherever
his goodwill goes, there will his trade
go also; and the goodwill of the buy
er waits upon the service and the
truthfulness Of the seller. ..# E..
Men do not continue to trade with
those who have tried to cheat them
if there are others whose desire is to
give honest and friendly service, and
who make that desire known through
the medium of advertising. Advertis-
ing has not created the need for hon.
esty in business; it has merely brought
more people to realize the inevitable
nature of that need. Now it is fun
damental fact in human nature that
people do not take important action
except upon personal conviction of
the need for such action. Philoso-
piers and teachers may recite the
rules Of ethics indefinitely, and we
may nod our heads and murmur
'That's so!;" but it takes the shock
of personal experience before most
of us will change the emphasis upon
that phrase Of acquiescence and say
':That's SOL" with the force of abso-
lutte conviction.
= Personal experience with the de-
structive force of misused advertising
and with the constructive force Of ad-
vertising intelligently employed per-
haps by competitors, has brought
thousands to believe what has hitherto
been only copy-book maxim to them
that, in business, and in adveftis-
ing, which is the reflection Of busi-
ness, absolute honesty is the only sue
cessful policy. And so we are entitled
to recognize in advertising perhaps
the greatest modern force making to-
wards practical and applied ethics.
During the past ten months l have
travelled over greater part Of these
United States and into Canada and
have addressed a total audience of
nearly $4,000 business men and wo-
men, talking on advertising as an
Ethical Force and "Better Business"
and l have told these men and women
that if they want business to be better
they must make it better; that if they
sit with folded hands, waiting for con-
ditions to improve and for business
to get better Of its own accord, con-
ditions will not improve and business
will not get better; that the response
lbility for the return Of prosperity
rests upon every individual engaged
in business. Thirty-f thousand Of
my audience have been retailers, who
control the tap at the end Of the pipe.
line Of business. have urged them
to turn on that tap by adopting now
progressive and aggressive tactics Of
a sound and permanent business build
ing character, and have placed these
tactics fully at their disposal through
the Educational and Better Business
dana rtrnants nf orr great AssociatiOn