San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-04-01
ADVERTISING SAN ANTONIO

a billboard advertising San Antonio
has been set UP upon Times Square in
New York City through the activities
OF the publicity department OF the Cham
Der Of Commerce. 1t speaks OF "frag-
rant rose-blooming plazas, the Alamo
OF glorious memory and quaint old Span
ish missions" which form a romantic
setting for the care-free merriment OF
the Fiesta week. April 21-26." At this
time fascinating events will focus at
tentiop on San Antonio"
This is an excellent piece of business
1t brings before the eve OF some twenty
one million people within the space OF
a month. Git being estimated that each
thirty days that many pass the spot on
which the advertising billboard stands.
the fact OF San Antonio's existence and
its attractions. 1t calls attention to the
Fiesta and suggests its particular reia-
ton to San Antonio and its background
OF history and romance.
But this business, excellent as it is.
is merely a step. Advertising as the
iiiN'tliH vi .NtliillS dltNllNIOlI " NiiOl OlC
has to sell is only half OF the problem
OF selling, for the matter advertised has
to give that complete satisfaction claimed
for it in the advertisement or else sales
end with the first one and advertising
fails. This idea further developed and
in relation to the matter in hand pro-
poses no suggestion or intimation that
San Antonio cannot fill the bill. but it
does say this. Having advertised the
Fiesta as the particular attraction OF
San Antonio it .behoovcs the Fiesta As
ISOLATION to make the approaching
Fiesta live up to the standard the adj
vcl tisement or Times Square suggests
There is more also to this question Of
advertising San Antonio than is involved
in the kind of Fiesta 10 be held this
year, related as advertising is to that
other side OF producing the goods"
Some fifteen or more years ago the sculp-
tor. Pompeo Coppini with the true in
stincts of an artist put his finger on
the central problem.
Hc came to San Antonio to make it
his home because it offered. above the
average city of the United States. a
UNIQUE and distinctive background for
the growth OF city. beautiful and in
dividual too. With an artists eve and
imagination. he saw the possibilities and
the chance OF incorporating into the fiji
ture architecture of the city the archi
tectural beginnings. the blending of the
Spanish and American ideas.
When there was talk OF widening
Commerce street. his idea was that tht
architectural background should b.
taken into consideration. He suggested
a plan of archcd arcading an adapta
ton of the Spanish idea and. moreover
particularly suited TO climate domi
mated largely by the sun. But his ar
tistic idea was too strong. too diffet
cnt. toe individual. too distinctive. TIL,
powers that-were at the time, saw street,
like streets anywhere else in the coun
try and carried out their ideas. Sinila
ideas of making San Antonio into a cit,
like any middle western farming tow
or eastern manufacturing center hav
been somewhat in the ascendance 70
number of years. But fortunately
there is a growing realization that thi
policy has been similar to that Of killing
the goose that laid ;he golden egg il