Judge — September 1936 — page 28: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Social Effects of Advertising ADVERTISING is so obvious that it usually taken for granted. Yet there are many important facts about advertising that are not generally known, because few pco- ple have given the subject enough thought to realize how broadly it affects all our af- fairs. Tod. advertising is one of the most important social forces. It exerts a strong influence in our private lives and is a major factor in the national welfare. As the helpful friend of shoppers, adver- tising necds no introduction. Every man, woman, and child is conscious of its con- venient service of information, while the broader economic and social functions of advertising are not so widely understood The fact is that our modern system of dis- tributing goods would never work without advertising. The use of advertising actually lowers the total cost of distribution, and indirectly helps to reduce the cost of manufacture, by providing the large sales volume necessary for economical production. known products have become low-priced, popular articles, chiefly as the result of ex- tensive advertising. This has greatly bene- fited all classes of consumers. The adoption of new inventions for popu- lar use is hastened by advertising, which enables young started quickly and to expand rapidly. This serves to give the benefit of an invention promptly Jumerous wet industries to get to the public, and to multiply employment opportunities, at the same time setting: up a counter-balance for labor-saving machines and increasing the production of wealth. This process results in greater income for everyone and makes possible higher stand- ards of living Aside from its purely economic function, advertising promotes higher living stand- ards in another way. By education, it stimu- lates desires for better living conditions. It s that fire the ambition for success in life. There is prob- ably no other country in the world where all the people are so cager to adopt the latest improvements and conveniences. This atti- tude is partly duc to the fact that we have more advertising than any other country, and holds up material incentiv it is one of the very important reasons for the high standard ot living in Ame Advertising has helped to raise the stand- ards of public health, by its educational influence on personal hygiene and sanitation in the home. It provides instruction in the selection and preparation of foods and many other household and personal health mat- ters. In many ways, advertising is an agent for the dissemination of culture to the great mass of our population. It finances the three greatest educational media of our country, newspapers, magazines, and radio. Some of the best advertising is a direct cultural force in itself. Much of it promotes the sale of articles essential to cultured existence. In business, advertising has tended to bring competition into the open, because by its very nature advertising itself is open. Its favorable influence on business ethics ho been marked. It is hard to appreciate the full breadth of advertising’s usefulness, for it is not a thing apart. Advertising is a business force of great economic value, helping mightily in the climb of social progress. Copyright 1936, Advertising Federation of America comicbooks.com