The Business of Advertising (RLE Advertising) 9781136669866, 9780415818001

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ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: ADVERTISING

THE BUSINESS OF ADVERTISING

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THE BUSINESS OF ADVERTISING

CLARENCE MORAN

Volume 10

First published in 1905 This edition first published in 2013 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 1905 Methuen & Co. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-0-415-63749-7 (Set) eISBN: 978-0-203-07915-7 (Set) ISBN: 978-0-415-81800-1 (Volume 10) eISBN: 978-0-203-58246-6 (Volume 10) Publisher’s Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent. Disclaimer The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.

THE BUSINESS OF ADVERTISING

Drawn b, M . t}nard Brown

CRNTRE

PICTURE

OF

".o

MAZAWATE£

COCOA

POSTER

Rtproductd b} DavjJ Allen at Som, Ltd.

THE BUSINESS OF ADVERTISING BY

CLARENCE MORAN OF THE INNER TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW

WITH ELEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS

METHUEN & CO.

36 ESSEX STREET LONDON

w.e.

First

Publis/~ed

in 190.5

CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE

THE BUSINESS OF ADVERTISING AND ITS UTILITY

I

CHAPTER II THE HISTORY OF ADVERTISING

20

CHAPTER III THE BUSINESS OF MURAL ADVERTISING

46

CHAPTER IV THE BUSINESS OF ADVERTISING IN THE PRESS

64

CHAPTER V THE BUSINESS OF ADVERTISING BY CIRCULAR

92

CHAPTER VI ART AND ADVERTISING: THE PICTORIAL POSTER •

98

CHAPTER VII THE BILIJ-POSTERS' BILJ.,-POSTERS' ASSOCIATIONS AND THEIR CENSORSHIP COMMITTEES

116

CHAPTER VIII THE TAXATION AND RATING OF ADVERTISEMENTS

12 9

CONTENTS

vi

CHAPTER IX RESTRICTIONS ON ADVERTISING

PAGE

ISO

CHAPTER X THE PROBLEM 18 OF CONTROL

170 170

APPENDICES I. BYE-LAWS OF THE LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL WITH REGARD TO FLASH AND SEARCH LIGHTS • II. USUAL DEFINITION OF A SKY SIGN

182 18 3

III. THE FARNWORTH CLAUSE

184

IV. THE DOVER CLAUSE

18 5

INDEX

187

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS A MAZAWATTEE POSTER.

MaYl1,ard Ma},l1,ard Brown

Fro1Ztlspt"ece Froltttspt"ece

By kind permission of the Mazawattee Company and of the printers, printers. Messrs. David Allen and Sons, Ltd. FACE PAGE

A

RAILWAY STATION IN

1874

12

By kind permission of Messrs. Chatto and Windus Windus..

•~\N\N OLD BILL-POSTING STATION By kind permission of Messrs. Chatto and Windus.

40

A LONDON SKY-SIGN (now abolished)

47

By kind permission of the Building Act Committee of the London County Council.

A

50

T\VELVE-FOOT LONDON HOARDING

By kind permission of Messrs. Walter Hill and Co., Ltd. THE "BUBBLES" POSTER.

Sir St'r JO}l1Z Jolnz Everett Mlllals Mt'llaz's

By kind permission of Messrs. Pears and of the printers, Messrs. Gilbert Whitehead and Co., Ltd.

J.

53

A "COLMAN'S MUSTARD" POSTER. John Hassall

lOS

AN IRISH BILL-POSTING STATION.

116

By kind permission of Messrs. J. and J. Colman, Ltd., and of the printers, l\fessrs. David Allen and Sons, Ltd. ~1e5srs.

By kind permission of Messrs. David Allen and Sons, Ltd.

A LONDON HOARDING

162

By kind permission of Messrs. Partington and Co Co.. .\ .\ LONDON SKY-SIGN

164

(now abolished)

By kind permission of the Building Act Committee of the London County Council.

AN ADVERTISEMENT ON DOVER CLIFFS • By kind permission of Sir Wollaston Knocker,

C.B.,

171

Town Clerk of Dover.

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PREFACE

M

y only excuse for troubling the reader with a preface is that I may take the occasion thus offered of impressing upon him, what I hope is sufficiently apparent in the book itself, that this is a descrip· tive and not a polemical work. It is an attempt to outline the practice of the advertising trades, some of the more important restrictions on advertising, and a few of the questions which arise in connexion with the business. The subject of mural advertising has of recent years become highly controversia1. But the problem of control is only discussed in the last chapter of this little sketch. There I have endeavoured to show that although control exists in every civilised country, there is no general opinion as to what form it should take, within \vhat limits it should be exercised, or in whom the power should be vested. On these questions I have expressed no opinion, but have simply attempted to present the views of those who control the trade and of their critics. It is typical of the attitude I have striven to maintain that my thanks are equally due to Mr. Walter Hill, the

I)REFACE

x

President of the United Bill-Posters' Association, to Mr. Moore, of the firm of Street and Co., to Messrs. David Allen and Co., and to my friend, Mr. Richardson Evans, the Honorary Secretary of the Society for Checking the Abuses of Public Advertising, for their kindness in allowing me to avail myself of their intimate acquaintance with the more technical details of the subject. I must also record my obligation to my friend, Mr. Hugh Arnold, who is largely responsible for the chapter on Art and Advertising; and my warm thanks are due to my friend and colleague, Mr. Gordon Crosse, for his untiring interest and assistance.

CLARENCE MORAN I, MITRE COURT BUILDINGS TEMPLE,

E.C.

March 24th , 1905

THE BUSINESS OF ADVERTISING CHAPTER I THE BUSINESS OF ADVERTISING AND ITS UTILITY "Yes, sir, puffing is of various sorts; the principal are, the puff direct, the puff preliminary, the puff collateral, the puff collusive and the puff oblique, or the puff by implication. These all assume, as circumstances require, the various forms of Letter to the Editor, Occasional Anecdote, Impartial Critique, Observation from Correspondent, or Advertisement from the Party."-MR. PUFF in The Crz"tic.

F

EW will deny that Mr. Puff's scientific treatment of the art and practice of puffery is as applicable to these latter days as to those of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Doctor Johnson wrote in The Idler in the year 1759: "The trade of advertising is now so near to perfection that it is not easy to propose any improvement," But the puff direct pervades every phase of modern life in a way the eighteenth century dreamt not of, and if it had, would never have permitted. From a breakfast-table laden with an encyclopcedia of puffery the man of business passes to his work in a railway carriage lined with enamelled puffs, through B

2

THE BlTSINESS OF ADVERTISING

fields that bear an iron crop. .At every stage in his journey he passes stations which F~udyard Kipling once described as "Stores Catalogues in a nightmare." At the office he is met by the puff oblique. The learned professions are not exempt. The puff collateral is not unknown amongst promoters nor the puff collusive amongst dramatic critics. The practice amongst the clergy of puffing their sermons on a bill-board is becoming more prevalent-in fact, no trade, profession, class, or condition of life is free from puffery. I n the words of a writer in the Ed£nburgh Rev£ew as long ago as 1843 :-" The grand princIple of modern existence is notoriety: we live, move, and have our being in print. Hardly a second-rate Dandy can start for the moors or a retired Slopseller leave London, for Margate \vithout announcing the fashionable movement in the Morn£ng Post, and what Curran said of Byron, that he wept for the Press, and wiped his eyes with the public, may now be predicated of everyone who is striving for any sort of distinction. He must not only weep, but eat, walk, talk, hunt, shoot, give parties, and travel, in the newspapers. People nowadays contemptuously reject the old argument, whom not to know, argues yourself un .. known. The universal inference is that if a man be not known, he cannot be worth knowing; and any attempt to couple 11terlt with modesty is invariably met with the well-known aphorism of the Reverend Sydney Smith, that the only connexion between them is their both beginning with an nt.. In this state of things it is use .. less to swim against the stream, and folly to differ from our contemporaries: a prudent youth will purchase the last edition of The Art of Rzslng In the World, or Every.

ADVERTISING AND ITS UTILITY

3

Man his own Fortune-11taker, and sedulously practise the main precept it enjoins-never to omit an opportunity of placing your name in printed characters before the world." But we are only concerned to present an outline of the business of advertising and of some of the questions which arise in connexion with it. With the less reputable forms of puffery these pages will not deal. An advertisement may be best defined as an announcement which is the expression of a want, with in most cases a suggestion or inducement towards its satisfaction, by appealing to the want of another. An advertisement, then, is primarily the expression of a want. In the great majority of cases the want expressed is that of money, and the expression is usually effected by vaunting the merits of a commodity in the market. But this is not always so. Sermons are advertised on billboards and humane societies publish companion pictures of the comfort and torture of animals. A man often advertises for services, or occasionally for barter, as in the Exchange and Mart. But most frequently the want expressed is that of money. The producer or seller must advertise-to use the word in its widest sense-if he wish to secure a sale. The consumer or purchaser can generally effect a sale and satisfy his want without further resource to pUblicity. Where, however, through any cause supply is limited and decreasing, or a market is lacking, as, for instance, in the case of first editions, the services of domestic servants, and articles of vertu, the purchaser may be induced to publish his needs. It is obvious that the business of advertising-of expressing a want-is in the main the means of procuring a

4

THE BUSINESS OF ADVERTISING

market, and one of the processes in the distribution of produce. An advertisement mayor may not be a puff. A simple announcement, such as the style of a degree or the name of a shopkeeper, is, or may be, an advertisement; it is the expression of a want, but it is not a puff. A puff is an expression of opinion, and wherever the announcement is coupled with a question-begging epithet there we have the puff. But in both cases, whether a mere announcement or a puff, an advertisement is simply the direct expression of a want. There is little of the puff oblique about an ordinary advertise .. mente I t is true the phrasing or the expression of an idea may be original, as, for example, in the following case, taken more or less at random from a daily paper :CHRISTMAS.-Lonely gentleman or lady can give great pleasure by coming for short or permanent visit; most comfortable, large, well-built house; lovely garden; ponies to drive. Young People's Christmas made quite unhappy for the sake of a little ready money; by coming they could have a happy time, and the Gentleman or Lady w'ould have a quiet happy time. Address--

But this only pretends to be an advertisement for a paying guest, and nothing else. Or to take another example:Wanted, permission to EXERCISE Gentleman's HORSE (near Russell Square), will pay a little for privilege.

No one is deceived. The advertiser's want is to hire a horse at a slight expense. The combination of the qualifications of chevalier and groom is solely with the view of attracting attention. Even in the case of the

ADVERTISING AND ITS UTILITY

5

fashionable journal which invites the insertion of paragraphs announcing "marriages and arrivals and departures" at 2 IS., exceeding six lines 5s. for each extra line, and which will publish "fashionable and miscellaneous paragraphs . . . by agreement, subject to the approval of the editor," the advertisement is the direct expression of a want. Whether the announcement is designed as likely to meet the eyes of friends or as a social puff, it is as much the expression of a need as any other advertisement. Neither does the hyperbolic expression of the ordinary puff deceive anybody. Simplex commendatio non obligat. The puff is not a warranty, and the advertiser uses superlatives to attract notice and not to affirm that his particular commodity is the very best of the kind which ever has or ever will be produced. Many large firms maintain a separate advertising department. With these we are not concerned. Advertising with them is subsidiary to their main function -the production or sale of goods. The business of advertising, when carried on as a separate trade, is the subject of these pages. There are three businesses in the trade: the business of advertising by circular, the business of advertising in the Press, and the business of mural advertising, including in that term the business of all those who advertise on any structure which can be viewed by the public, from the flying machine to the stones of the pavement. The three trades differ fundamentally in their methods of effecting publicity. I t is true that of late years American methods of advertising in newspapers have been introduced into this country, and the eye is often forced to read a particular adver-

6

THE

BU'S!l~ESS

OF ADVERTISING

tisement by the boldness of the type or the extent of the space occupied. But in the main the newspaper advertisement is only read by the person who intends to read it The initiative is taken by the public when the paper is purchased. The advertisements in the Press are for the most part classified: a different column must be scanned for a book, a seat at the play, a house, or a servant. This, again, implies initiative on the part of the public. The person for whose eyes the advertisement has been written will not see the notice unless he takes one or more steps, which imply that he 'intends, or at all events is not unwilling, to receive the information. But the mural advertiser imparts his information to every passer-by. There is no initiative on the part of the public. He that runs "lust read, and occasionally he who reads must run. This essential difference is of great importance, not only to advertisers but to the public generally. It is probable that the classification which pervades advertising in the Press will increase amongst mural advertisements. Railway stations already maintain some sort of order and regulation amongst their aifiches, and the bills of the railway company are confined to separate hoardings. From the point of view of the advertiser, the distinction means much. A bill when posted is purely local in its effect. Only those who pass by take notice, but nearly all those who pass bYa or pass by constantly, must take notice. The result is that billposting on a large scale gives general publicity and is of special use in promoting the sale of any article of universal consumption. Every person who sees the notice "lay purchase the article. On the other hand,

ADVERTISING AND ITS UTILIT'y

7

a commodity intended for a single class of consumer is seldom puffed upon the hoardings. It is a sheer waste to bring to the notice of people a commodity which they would never buy. A monograph \vritten for the delight of the student would be advertised in the journals of the student and not upon the streets. The daily paper of to-day, thanks largely to the practice and support of advertisers, gives wide publicity, but owing in the first place to the classification generally adopted, and in the second to the fact that different classes of men read different papers, whilst every trade, profession, or pursuit maintains a separate journal, special adverttst"ng-, or the advertising of an article amongst a class likely to purchase, can be more easily obtained by advertising in the Press. Bill-posting can effect this specialisation to a certain extent, as, for instance, by a display in business or in residential quarters or by posting in places frequented by a class. But the principle of bill-posting is to attract the notice of every passer-by. How that notice is and should be attracted will be dealt with hereafter. It is, if successful, the most comprehensive agent of publicity, and is therefore the means used to puff articles most widely consumed. It is true that many articles of universal consumption are never advertised on the hoardings, as, for instance, meat. The reason appears to be that there is little differentiation-the variety or species is not sufficiently marked - and the demand is often met by local supply. The article must be proprietary. Where the meat has been converted into a meat extract the differentiation is marked, it is intensified by a label and

8

THE BUSINESS OF i\DVERTISING

trade mark, the supply from a single entrepot is spread over a larger area, and an advertisement appears on every hoarding. The distinction between the two trades tends to the conclusion that if the commodity to be advertised is one which every man may buy, it is advisable to advertise on the hoardings, but if the commodity is one desired only by a limited class, a large part of the pUblicity paid for will be wasted if the hoardings are utilised. In such a case the newspaper directories should be consulted for the best Ineans of advertising for that particular class. This is the fundamental distinction between the two trades from the point of view of the advertiser. On the other hand, the distinction is important in the eyes of the public. No one need buy a paper, but everyone must keep his eyes open, if he would walk securely in the streets of a town. As a result, although the law of England will recognise no right to a view, local restrictions on hoardings and posters abound. But advertising in the Press is uncontrolled, save for a few restrictions on ad vertisemen ts of lotteries, bettinghouses, advertisements for the recovery of stolen pro .. perty, and, of course, in those cases where the general law of the country has been infringed. The restrictions and regulatiot:ls, in deference to the policy of the law, which refuses to safeguard the amenities of life, as distinguished from the comfort of the citizens, are for the most part based on reasons of public health and safety. But a few, as, for instance, Clause 5 of the Advertising Stations (Rating) Act, 1889 (see post, p. 144), and section 42 of the Dover Corporation Act, 1901 (see post, p. 185), were clearly passed mainly on