By G.C.THBONLEY

The coming of the age of printing and of regular newspapers, and the spread of education, naturally increased the chances and the value of advertisement. By the year 1714 there were eleven daily and weekly papers on sale in London, but not all of them were anxious to print advertisements.

All sorts of lies and false claims were made in some of the early printed advertisements. It is sad to think of the money wasted by poor sufferers on the useless medicines advertised in the papers of those times. Even doctors could not control their desire to become famous in the easy way. In July 1807 a certain Dr. Dunn put a notice in a paper saying that he could give advice "in all cases of blindness," but at least he was honest enough to say that he could not always make the blind see. Many other advertisements of the time were far more dishonest than this.

The national advertisement was born with the national newspaper, and those papers which were sold in millions every day were more useful to the advertiser than the papers with few readers.

Today in Britain there are several papers each of which sells more than four million copies a day, and the advertisement in one of those, reaching millions of eyes, is accordingly costly. It is the advertisements which make it possible to keep the price of the paper low; for advertisers are willing to pay well, if they get value for money. Some papers are not, in fact, chiefly newspapers: they are advertisers which also contain news to make people buy them. Some papers are even called Advertisers. So it may well happen that we read of the start of a war on the back of an advertisement for bath soap or a dance hall.

The immense advertisement business of today has become a matter for specialists, in whose hands the shopkeeper or

manufacturer places his advertising business. These men have studied the markets and the problems, and they make the necessary arrangements. The problems are not at all simple in our modern world. If the advertisement is going to be printed, where shall it be put? If in a newspaper, which paper? It is useless to advertise dancing shoes for girls in a paper read chiefly by tired lawyers or old generals in clubs. Probably it would be a waste of money to advertise a new Rolls-Royce in a workman's paper.

Even when the paper has been chosen, the work has hardly begun. There are the questions of the actual words to be used, and the size, shape and arrangement of the letters. How shall the reader's eye be caught? A picture may help, but what sort of picture? Of course the picture of a pretty girl (who has no connection with the subject at all) may increase the sales of coal or railway tickets, but her picture must be placed in the best position. On which page of the newspaper shall the advertisement appear? Some pages cost more than others, but they are the pages noticed by most readers. Such problems as these must be studied by the advertising specialist who wants to keep his business.

He must also study the question of colour in advertisements. Is it worth the extra cost? A coloured picture gives a much better idea of a woman's dress than a black-and-white drawing does. But extra attention which colour commands is in fact less than the extra cost of printing it, and the advantages of coloured advertisements haven't not been proved. The study of this subject has not brought very clear results.

In hot weather green and blue seem to be preferred by the public to red; but red is not preferred to green and blue in the winter! It was once thought that men liked blue better than red; but numbers of men wear red neckties, especially with grey suits. It was also believed that women preferred red to blue; yet a lot of blue hats are sold to women and girls. In any case, who can possibly tell what a woman will choose in a shop?

The question of the best colours to use in letters of an advertisement has also been studied. For reading at a distance black letters on yellow are the clearest, and black on white are the next best. It has been shown that red and yellow walls make a room look small, but they may be the best colours for large rooms. Green or blue often make a

room look larger than white does. But the final results of the effects of colour on the mind have not been determined.

Of course the advertiser may decide not to use the newspapers, but to put his notice on the side of a bus, or in a railway station, or in an underground train, or beside a road, where it will be seen by city walkers as they go to their offices day after day. The modern world provides other ways of persuading the public to spend their money. The first television service started in Britain did not, and does not advertise. It must not. It takes a pride in not advertising! If you are listening to the music of a great pianist, you will never be able to see what kind of piano he is playing, even when the television camera is pointing straight at his hands. The name of the maker of the piano is just not there.

But in later years the commercial service, which is paid for by advertisements only, was opened; and the advertiser can buy time on this if he wishes to. The cost of these advertisements is very high because the number of people who see them run into millions. They may last a few seconds and appear at suitable times during the entertainments: at the end of the play, or between Part I and Part II of a film.

The advertiser who chooses television has to decide which hour of the day suits him best. Men are usually at work during the daylight hours and so the evening is the best time to advertise articles for them. But women's clothes, soap and food may well be advertised during the afternoon when tired wives want to sit down.

Except on television the general quality of advertisements is now fairly high: much higher than it was when Dr Dunn described his abilities to the world. Advertisements which make false claims are not accepted, and some type of advertisements is not allowed by law. But television advertisements are sometimes of poor quality, and some of the people who watch get so tired of nonsense that they go out of the room to make some coffee as soon as the advertisements begin, and come back only when they are finished. Here is another problem for the advertisement specialist.

It is impossible to give a real idea of the place of advertisement in the modern world, but certainly hundreds of millions of pounds are spent every year on advertising. New ways of making people buy are always being considered, and we may expect different kinds of

advertisement to appear in the future. Already a company report in America has been printed in ink which has a lovely smell. Perhaps the advertising specialist of the future may have to decide whether to advertise a car in ink that smells of roses or of engine oil.

On television the human voice has returned to advertising; but we have surely traveled a long way from the public crier of ancient Athens.

Date: 2015-12-13; view: 517; Нарушение авторских прав