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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 241 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ADVERTISEMENT, or ADVERTISING (Fr. avertissement, warning, or See also:notice) , the See also:process of obtaining and particularly of purchasing publicity. The business of advertising is of very See also:recent origin if it be regarded as a serious See also:adjunct to other phases of commercial activity. In some rudimentary See also:form the seller's See also:appeal to the buyer must, however, have accompanied the earliest development of See also:trade. Under conditions of See also:primitive See also:barter, communities were so small that every producer was in immediate See also:personal contact with every consumer. As the primeval See also:man's wolfish antipathy to the stranger of another See also:pack gradually diminished, and as intercourse spread the infection of larger desires, the trapper could no longer satisfy his more complicated wants by the See also:mere See also:exchange of his pelts for his See also:lowland See also:neighbour's See also:corn and oil. A began to accept from B the commodity which he could in turn deliver to C, while C in exchange for B's product gave to A what D had produced and bartered to C. The mere statement of such a transaction sufficiently presents its clumsiness, and the use of primitive forms of See also:coin soon simplified the See also:original process of See also:bare barter. It is reasonable to suppose that as soon as the introduction of currency marked the See also:abandonment of See also:direct relations between purchaser and consumer an informal See also:system of advertisement in turn See also:rose to meet the need of publicity. At first the offer of the producer must have been brought to the trader's See also:attention, and the trader's offer to the notice of the consumer, by casual personal contact, supplemented by See also:local rumour. The See also:gradual growth of markets and their development into periodical fairs, to which merchants from distant places resorted, afforded, until See also:printing was invented, the only means of extended advertisement. In See also:England, during the 3rd See also:century, See also:Stourbridge See also:Fair attracted traders from abroad as well as from all parts of England, and it may be conjectured that the crying of wares before the booths on the See also:banks of the See also:Stour was the first form of advertisement which had any marked effect upon See also:English See also:commerce. As the fairs of the See also:middle ages, with the tedious and hazardous journeys they involved, gradually gave See also:place to a more convenient system of trade, the 15th century brought the invention of printing, and led the way to the See also:modern development of advertising.

The Americans, to whom the elaboration of newspaper advertising is primarily due, had but just founded the first English-speaking community in the western hemisphere when the first newspaper was published in England. But although the first periodical publication containing See also:

news appeared in the See also:month of May 1622, the first newspaper advertisement does not seem to have been published until See also:April 1647. It formed a See also:part of No. 13 of Perfect Occurrences of Every Daie journall in See also:Parliament, and other Moderate Intelligence, and it read as follows: A See also:Book applauded by the See also:Clergy of England, called The Divine Right of See also:Church See also:Government, Collected by sundry eminent Ministers in the Citie of See also:London; Corrected and augmented in many places, with a briefe Reply to certain Queries against the Ministery of England; Is printed and published for See also:Joseph Hunscot and See also:George See also:Calvert, and are to be sold at the Stationers' See also:Hall, and at the See also:Golden Fleece in the Old See also:Change. Among the Mercuries,-as the weekly See also:newspapers of the See also:day were called, was the Mercurius Elencticus, and in its 45th number, published on the 4th of See also:October 1648, there appeared the following advertisement: The Reader is desired to peruse a See also:Sermon, ntituled A Looking-Glasse for See also:Levellers, Preached at St. See also:Peters, Paules See also:Wharf, on See also:Sunday, See also:Sept. 24th 1648, by See also:Paul Knell, Mr. of Arts. Another See also:Tract called A Reflex upon our Reformers, with a See also:prayer for the Parliament. In an issue of the Mercurius Politicus, published by See also:Marchmont Nedham, who is described as " perhaps both the ablest and the readiest man that had yet tried his See also:hand at a newspaper," there appeared in See also:January 1652 an advertisement, which has often been erroneously cited as the first among newspaper advertisements. It read as follows: Irenodia Gratulatoria, a heroic poem, being a congratulatory panegyrick for my See also:Lord See also:General's return, summing up his successes in an exquisite manner. To be sold by See also:John See also:Holden, in the New Exchange, London, Printed by See also:Thomas Newcourt, 1652. The See also:article " On the Advertising System," published in the See also:Edinburgh See also:Review for See also:February 1843, contains the fullest See also:account of See also:early English advertising that has ever been given, and it has been very freely See also:drawn upon by all writers who have since discussed the subject.

But it describes this advertisement in the Mercurius Politicus as " the very first," and the See also:

discovery of the two earlier instances above quoted was due to the researches of a contributor to Notes and Queries. In The See also:Crosby Records, the See also:commonplace-books of See also:William Blundell, there is an interesting comment, dated 1659, on the lack of advertising facilities at that See also:period It would be very expedient if each See also:parish or See also:village might have some place, as the church or smithy, wherein to publish (by papers posted up) the wants either of the buyer or the seller, as such a See also:field to be let, such a servant, or such a service, to be had, &c. There was a book published in London weekly about the See also:year 1657 which was called as I remember) The Publick See also:Advice. It gave See also:information in very many of these particulars. A year later the same diarist says There is an See also:office near the Old Exchange in London called the office of Publick Advice. From thence both printed and private information of this useful nature are always to be had. But what they See also:print is no more than a See also:leaf or less in a diurnal. I was in this office. The diurnal consisted of sixteen pages See also:quarto in 1689. In No. 62 of the London See also:Gazette, published in See also:June 1666, the first advertisement supplement was announced An Advertisement—Being daily prest to the Publication of Books, Medicines, and other things not properly the business of a See also:Paper of Intelligence, This is to notifie, once for all, that we will not See also:charge the Gazette with Advertisements, unless they be See also:matter of See also:State: but that a Paper of Advertisements will be forthwith printed apart, & recommended to the Publick by another hand. In No.

94 of the same See also:

journal, published in October 1666, there appeared a See also:suggestion that sufferers from the See also:Great See also:Fire should avail themselves of this means of publicity Such as have settled in new habitations since the See also:late Fire, and See also:desire for the convenience of their See also:correspondence to publish the place of their See also:present See also:abode, or to give notice of Goods lost or foundmay repair to the corner See also:House in Bloomsbury on the See also:East See also:Side of the Great Square, before the House of the Right See also:Honourable the Lord Treasurer, where there is care taken for the See also:Receipt and Publication of such Advertisements. The earlier advertisements, with the exception of formal notices, seem to have been concerned exclusively With either books or See also:quack remedies. The first trade advertisement, which does not fall within either of these categories, was curiously enough the first advertisement of a new commodity, See also:tea. The following advertisement appeared in the Mercurius Politicus, No.435, for See also:September 1658 That excellent and by all Physitians approved See also:China Drink, called by the Chineans Tcha, by other nations See also:Tay, See also:alias Tee, is sold at the Sultaness See also:Head, a cophee-house in Sweetings Rents, by the Royal Exchange, London. The See also:history of See also:slavery, of privateering and of many other curious incidents and episodes of English history during the 17th and 18th centuries might be traced by examination of the antiquated advertisements which writers upon such subjects have already collected. In See also:order that space may be found for some See also:consideration of the See also:practical aspects of modern advertising, the discussion of its gradual development must be curtailed. Nor is it necessary to See also:preface this consideration by any laboured statement of the importance which advertising has assumed. It is a matter of See also:common knowledge that several business houses are to be found in Great See also:Britain, and a larger number in the See also:United States, who spend not less than £50,000 a year in advertising, while one patent See also:medicine See also:company, operating both in England and the United States, has probably spent not less than £200,000 in Great Britain in one year, and an English See also:cocoa manufacturer is supposed to have spent £15o,000 in Great Britain. Some of the best See also:works of artists as distinguished as See also:Sir John See also:Millais, Sir H. von Herkomer and Mr Stacy Marks have been scattered broadcast by advertisers. The See also:purchase of Sir John Millais' picture " Bubbles " for £2200 by the proprietors of a well-known See also:brand of See also:soap is probably the most remarkable instance of the See also:expenditure in this direction which an advertiser may find profitable. There are in London alone more than 350 advertising agents, of whom upwards of a See also:hundred are known as men in a considerable way of business. The statements which from See also:time to time find currency in the newspapers with regard to the See also:total amount of See also:money annually spent. upon advertising in Great Britain and in the United States are necessarily no better than conjectures, but no detailed See also:statistics are required in order to demonstrate what every reader can plainly see for himself, that advertising has definitely assumed its position as•a serious field of commercial enterprise.

Advertising, as practised at the beginning of the loth century, may be divided into three general classes: 1. Advertising in periodical publications. 2. Advertising by posters, signboards (other than those placed upon premises where the advertised business is conducted), transparencies and similar devices. 3. Circulars, sent in quantities to specific classes of persons to whom the advertiser specially desired to address himself. It may be noted at the outset that advertising in periodical publications exercises a reflex See also:

influence upon these publications. The daily, weekly and monthly publications of the day are accustomed to look to advertisements for so large a part of their See also:revenue that the purchaser of a periodical publication receives much greater value for his money than he could reasonably expect from the publisher if the aggregate advertising receipts did not constitute a perpetual See also:subsidy to the publisher. It is not to be supposed, however, that the receipts from the See also:sale of a paper See also:cover all its expenses and that the advertising revenue is all clear profit. The See also:average newspaper reader would be amazed if he knew at how great a cost the day's news is laid before him. A dignified journal displays no inclination to cry from the house-tops the vastness of its expenditure, but from time to time an See also:accident enables the public to obtain information in this connexion. The See also:evidence taken by a recent See also:Copyright See also:Commission disclosed that the expenditure of the leading English journal upon See also:foreign news alone amounted to more than £so 000 in the course of one year, and that a year not characterized by any great See also:war to swell the See also:ordinary See also:volume of See also:cable despatches.

In the See also:

case of daily papers sold at the minimum See also:price, it is not less obvious that the costliness of news service renders advertising revenue indispensable, for although these less important See also:journals spend less money, the price at which they are supplied to the news agents is very small in proportion to the cost of their See also:production. If, however, this thought be pursued to its logical conclusion, the advertiser must admit that he in turn receives, from those among newspaper readers who purchase his wares, prices sufficiently high to cover the cost of his advertising. So that the reader is in the curious position of directly paying a certain price for his newspaper, receiving a newspaper fairly See also:worth more than that price, while this price is supplemented by the indirect incidence of a sort of tax upon many of the commodities he consumes. On the other hand, a great part of the advertisements in a daily newspaper have themselves an See also:interest and utility not less than that possessed by the news. The man who desires to hire a house turns to the classified lists which the newspaper publishes day after day, and servants and employers find one another by the same means. The theatrical announcements are so much a part of the news that even if a journal were not paid for their insertion they could not be altogether omitted without inconvenience to the reader. In the See also:main, however, it is the advertiser who seeks the reader, not the reader who seeks the advertiser, and the care with which advertisements are prepared, and the certainty with which the success or failure of a trader may be traced to his skill or want of skill as an advertiser, show that the proper use of advertising is one of the most indispensable branches of commercial training. Before discussing in detail the methods of advertising in periodical publications it may be well to See also:complete, for the use See also:Poster of the general reader, a brief survey of the whole and sign subject by examining the two other classes of advertise-advertise- went. The most enthusiastic See also:partisan of advertising menu. will admit that posters and similar devices are very generally regarded by the public as See also:sources of annoyance. A bold headline or a conspicuous See also:illustration in a newspaper advertisement may for a moment force itself upon the reader's attention. In the See also:French, and in some English newspapers, where an advertisement is often given the form of an See also:item of news, the reader is distressed by the See also:constant fear of being hoodwinked. He begins to read an account of a See also:street accident, and finds at the end of the See also:paragraph a puff of a See also:panacea for bruises.

The best English and See also:

American journals have refused to lend themselves to this sort of trickery, and in no one of the best journals printed in the English See also:language will there be found an advertisement which is not so plainly differentiated from news matter that the reader may avoid it if he See also:sees See also:fit to do so. On the whole, then, newspaper advertisements ask, but do not compel attention. The whole theory of poster advertising is, on the other hand, one of tyranny. The advertiser who pays for space upon a hoarding or See also:wall, although he may encourage a form of See also:art, deliberately violates the wayfarer's mind. A trade-See also:mark or a catch-word presents itself when See also:eye and thought are occupied with other subjects. Those who See also:object to this class of advertisement assert, with some show of See also:reason, that an advertisement has no more right to See also:assault the eye in this See also:fashion than to See also:storm the See also:ear by an inordinate din; and a man who came up behind another man in the street, placed his mouth See also:close to the other's ear, and bawled a recommendation of some brand of soap or See also:tobacco, would be regarded as an intolerable disturber of public See also:peace and comfort. Yet if the owner of a house sees fit to paint advertisements upon his walls, his exercise of the jealously guarded rights of private See also:property may not lightly be disturbed. For the most part, both See also:law and public See also:opinion content themselves with restraining the worst excesses of the advertiser, leaving many sensitive persons to suffer. The See also:National Society for Checking the Abuses of Public Advertising (known as SCAPA), founded in 1893 in London, was organized for purposes which it describes as follows: The society aims at protecting the picturesque simplicity of rural and See also:river scenery, and promoting a regard for dignity and propriety of aspect in towns—with especial reference to the abuses of spectacular advertising. It seeks to procure legislation whereby local representative bodies would be enabled to exercise See also:control, by means of by-See also:laws framed with a view to enabling them, at any See also:rate, to See also:grant See also:relief in cases of flagrant and acknowledged abuse. It is believed that, when regulation is applied in cases where local conditions are peculiarly favourable, the See also:advantage will be so apparent that, by force of See also:imitation and competition, the enforcement of a reasonable See also:standard will gradually become common. The degree of See also:restraint will, of course, depend upon the varying requirements of different places and positions.

No hard-and-fast See also:

rule is suggested; no particular class of advertisement is proscribed; certainly no general See also:prohibition of posters on temporary hoardings is contemplated. Within the See also:metropolitan See also:area See also:sky signs have already been prohibited, and it is hoped that some corresponding check will be placed on the multiplication of the field boards which so materially diminish the See also:pleasure or comfort of railway journeys. The society regards with favour the See also:imposition of a moderate tax or See also:duty for imperial or local purposes on exposed advertisements not coming within certain categories of obviously necessary notices. The difficulty of inducing a See also:chancellor of the See also:exchequer to move in a matter where revenue is not the See also:primary consideration is not over-looked. But it is thought that any See also:impost would materially reduce the volume of exposed advertisements, and would at once extinguish the most offensive and the most annoying class, i.e. the quack advertisements by the road sides and the bills See also:stuck by unauthorized persons on trees, walls and palings. Members are recommended to make it known that there exists an active repugnance to the present practice of advertising disfigurement, by giving preference, in private transactions, to makers and dealers who do not employ objectionable methods, and by avoiding, as far as possible, the purchase of wares which, in their individual opinion, are offensively puffed. See also:Action on these lines is advised rather for its educational than for its immediately deterrent effect; although, in the case of many of the more expensive commodities, makers would undoubtedly be much influenced by the knowledge that they would lose, rather than gain, See also:custom. The foregoing proposals are based on the following estimate of the conditions of the problem. It is believed that the present See also:licence causes discomfort or loss of enjoyment to many, and that, in the See also:absence of authoritative restriction, it must grow far beyond its present limits; that beauty or propriety of aspect in See also:town and See also:country forms as real a part of the national See also:wealth as any material product, and that to See also:save these from impairment is a national interest; that the recent developments ofvexatiously obtrusive advertising have not grown out of any necessities of honourable business, but are partly the result of a mere See also:instinct of imitation, and partly are a morbid phase of competition by which both the consumers and the trade as a whole lose; that restriction as regards the See also:size and positions of advertising notices would not be a hardship to those who want publicity—since all competitors would be treated alike, each would have the same relative prominence; that, as large sums of public money are expended on institutions intended to develop the finer See also:taste, and on edifices of elaborate See also:design, it must be held inconsistent with established public policy to permit the sensibilities thus imparted to be wounded, and architectural effect to be destroyed at the discretion of a limited class. The influence of this society is to be seen in many of the restrictions which have been imposed upon advertisers since its See also:work began. About a year after its See also:foundation the London See also:County See also:Council abolished (under statutory See also:powers obtained from Parliament) advertisements coming within the See also:definition of sky-signs in the London See also:Building See also:Act of 1894. These specifications are as follows: "'Sky sign " means any word, See also:letter, See also:model, sign, See also:device, or See also:representation in the nature of an advertisement, announcement, or direction supported on or attached to any See also:post, See also:pole, standard, framework, or other support, wholly or in part upon, over, or above any building or structure, which, or any part of which, sky sign shall be visible against the sky from any point in any street or public way, and includes all and every part of any such post, pole, standard, framework, or other support.

The expression " sky sign " shall also include any See also:

balloon, See also:parachute, or similar device employed wholly or in part for the purposes of any advertisements or announcement on, over, or above any building, structure, or erection of any See also:kind, or on or over any street or public way. The act proceeds to exclude from its restrictions flagstaffs, weathercocks and any solid signs not rising more than 3 fed' above the roof. Another by-law of the London County Council, in great measure due to the observations made at coroners' inquests, protects the public against the annoyances and the perils to See also:traffic occasioned by flashlight and searchlight advertisements. This by-law reads as follows: No See also:person shall exhibit any flashlight so as to be visible from any street and to cause danger to the traffic therein, nor shall any owner or occupier of premises permit or suffer any flashlight to be so exhibited on such premises. The expression " flashlight " means and includes any See also:light used for the purpose of See also:illuminating, See also:lighting, or exhibiting any word, letter, model, sign, device, or representation in the nature of an advertisement, announcement, or direction which alters suddenly either in intensity, See also:colour, or direction. No person shall exhibit any searchlight so as to be visible from any street, and to cause danger to the traffic therein, nor shall any owner or occupier of premises permit or suffer any searchlight to be so exhibited on such premises. The expression " searchlight " means and includes any light exceeding Soo-See also:candle See also:power, whether in one See also:lamp or See also:lantern, or in a See also:series of lamps or lanterns used together and projected as one concentrated light, and which alters either in intensity, colour, or direction. Advertising vans were so troublesome in London as to be prohibited in 1853; the " See also:sandwich-man " has in the See also:City of London and many towns been ousted from the See also:pavement to the See also:gutter, from the more crowded to the less crowded streets, and as the traffic " problem in the great centres of See also:population becomes more urgent, he will probably be altogether suppressed. Hoardings are now so restricted by the London Building Acts that new hoardings cannot, except under See also:special conditions, be erected exceeding 12 feet in height, and no existing hoardings can be increased in height so as to exceed that limit. The huge signs which some advertisers, both in England and the United States, have placed in such positions as to See also:mar the landscape, have so far aroused public antagonism that there is reason to See also:hope that this form of See also:nuisance will not increase. In 1899 Edinburgh obtained effective powers of control over all sorts of advertising in public places, and this achievement has been followed by no little agitation in favour of a See also:Parliamentary enactment which should once for all do away with the defacing of the landscape in any part of the United See also:Kingdom. In 1907 an act was passed (Advertisements Regulation Act) of a permissive See also:character purely, under which a local authority is enabled to make by-laws, subject to the See also:confirmation of the See also:Home Secretary, regulating (1) the erection of hoardings, &c., exceeding 12 feet in height, and (2) the See also:exhibition of'advertise- ments which might affect the " amenities " of a public place or landscape.

The English law with regard to posters has undergone very little change. The Metropolitan See also:

Police Act 1839 (2 and 3 Vict. cap. 47) first put a stop to unauthorized posting, and the In-decent Advertisements Act of 1889 (§ 3) penalized the public exposure of any picture or printed or written matter of an in-decent or obscene nature. But in general practice -there is hardly any See also:limitation to the size or character of poster advertisements, other than See also:good taste and public opinioh. On the other hand, public opinion is a somewhat vague entity, and there have been cases in which a conflict has arisen as to what public opinion really was, when its legally authorized exponent was in a position to insist on its own arbitrary definition. Such an instance occurred some few years ago in the case of a large poster issued by a well-known London See also:music-hall. The Progressive See also:majority on the London County Council, led by Mr (afterwards Sir) J. 11I`Dougall, a well-known " purity " See also:advocate, took exception to this poster, which represented a See also:female gymnast in - " tights " posed in what was doubtless intended for an alluring and attractive attitude; and, in spite of any See also:argument, the fact remained that the decision as to renewing the licence of this music-hall rested solely with the Council. In showing that it would have no hesitation in provoking even a charge of meddling prudery, the Council probably gave a salutary warning to See also:people who were inclined to See also:sail rather too near the See also:wind. But in Great Britain and See also:America, at all events (though a doubt may perhaps exist as to some See also:Continental countries), the advertiserand the artist are ,restrained, not only by their own sense of propriety, but by fear of offending the sense of propriety in their customers. Posters and placards in railway stations and upon public vehicles still- embarrass the traveller who desires to find the name of a station or the destination of a vehicle. In respect of all these abuses it is a regrettable fact that unpopularity cannot be expected to deter the advertiser.

Phoenix-squares

If a name has once been fixed in the memory, it remains therelong after the methodof its impression has been forgotten, and the purpose of advertisements of the class under discussion is really no more than the fixing of a trade name in the mind. - The average man or woman who goes into a See also:

shop to buy soap is more or less affected by a vague sense of antagonism towards the seller. There is a rudimentary feeling that even the most ordinary transaction of purchase brings into contact two minds actuatgd by diametrically opposed interests. The purchaser, whois not asking for a soap he has used before, has some hazy suspicion that the shopkeeper will try to sell, not the article best worth the price, but the article which leaves the largest margin of profit; and the purchaser imagines that he in some measure secures himself against a See also:bad bargain when he exercises his authority by asking for some specific brand or make of the commodity he seeks. If he has seen any one soap so persistently advertised that his memory retains its name, he will ask for it, not because he has any reason to believe it to be better or cheaper than others, but simply because he baffles the shopkeeper, and assumes an authoritative attitude by exerting his own freedom of choice. This curious and obscure principle of action probably lies at the See also:root of all poster advertising, for the poster does not set forth an argument as does the newspaper advertisement. It hardly attempts to reason with the reader, but merely impresses a name upon his memory. It is possible, by lavish advertising, to go so far in this direction that the trade-mark of a certain manufacturer becomes synonymous with the name of a commodity, so that when the consumer thinks of soap or asks for soap, his concept inevitably couples the maker's name with the word " soap " itself. In order that the poster may leave any impression upon his mind, it must of course first attract his attention. The assistance which the advertiser receives from the artist in this connexion is discussed in the article POSTER. The fact that the verb " to circularize " was first used in 1848, sufficiently indicates the very recent origin of the practice of plying possible purchasers with printed letters and See also:pamphlets. The See also:penny See also:postage was not established me at Aaverdsby e- in England until 1840; the See also:halfpenny post for circulars circular. was not introduced until 1855.

In the United States a See also:

uniform rate of postage at two cents was- not established until 1883. In both countries cheap postage and cheap printing have so greatly encouraged the use of circulars that the sort of people whom the advertiser desires to reach—those who have the most money to spend, and whose addresses, published in directories, indicate their prosperous condition—are overwhelmed by trades-men's price-lists, appeals from charitable institutions, and other suggestions for the spending of money. The addressing of envelopes and enclosing of circulars is now a recognized See also:industry in many large towns both in Great Britain and in the United States. It seems, however, to be the opinion of See also:expert advertisers that what is called " general circularizing is unprofitable, and that circulars should only be sent to persons who have See also:peculiar reason to be interested by their specific subject-matter. It may be noted, as an instance of the assiduity with which specialized circularizing is pursued, that the announcement of a See also:birth, See also:marriage or See also:death in the newspapers serves to See also:call forth a See also:grotesque variety of circulars supposed to be adapted to the momentary needs of the recipient. In concluding this review of methods of advertising, other than advertisements in periodical publications, we may. add , that the most extraordinary See also:attempt at advertisement which is known to exist is to be found at the See also:churchyard at See also:Godalming, See also:Surrey, where the following See also:epitaph was placed upon a See also:tomb-See also:stone:- - Sacred To the memory of Nathaniel Godbold Esq. Inventor & Proprietor of that excellent medicine The See also:Vegetable See also:Balsam For the Cure of Consumptions & Asthmas. He departed this See also:Life The 17th. day of See also:Deer. 1799 Aged 69 years. Hic Cineres, ubique See also:Fama. The preparation of advertisements for the periodical See also:press has within the last twenty years or so become so important a Adver- task that a great number of writers and artists—many tisingla of the latter possessing considerable abilities—gain a periodical livelihood from this pursuit. The ingenuity displayed public'- in modern newspaper advertising is unquestionably lions.

due to American initiative. The English newspaper advertisement of twenty years ago consisted for the most part of the mere reiteration of a name.. An advertiser who took a See also:

column's space supplied enough matter to fill an See also:inch, and ingenuously repeated his statement throughout the column. Such departures from this childlike method as were made were for the most part See also:eccentric to the point of incoherence. It may, how-ever, be said in See also:defence of English advertisers; that newspaper publishers for a See also:long time sternly discountenanced any attempt to render advertisements attractive. So long as an advertiser was rigidly confined to the ordinary single-column measure, and so long as he was forbidden to use anything but the smallest sort of type, there was very little opportunity for him to attract the reader's attention. The newspaper publisher must always remember that the public buy a newspaper for the See also:sake of the news, not for the sake of the advertisements, and that if the advertisements are relegated to a position and a See also:scope, in respect of display, so inferior that they may be overlooked, the advertiser cannot afford to See also:bear his See also:share of the cost of publication. Of late The Times, followed by almost all newspapers; in the United Kingdom, has given the advertiser as great a degree of See also:liberty as he really needs, and many experienced advertisers in America incline to the belief that the larger licence accorded to American advertisers defeats its own ends. The truth. would seem to be that the advertiser will always demand, and may fairly expect, the right to make his space as fantastic in See also:appearance as that allotted to the editor. When some American editors see fit to print a headline in letters as large as a man's hand, and to begin See also:half-a-dozen different articles on the first See also:page of a newspaper, continuing one on page 2, another on page 4, and another on page 6, to the bewilderment of the reader, it can hardly be expected that the American advertiser should submit to any very strict See also:code of decorum. The subject of the relation between a newspaper proprietor and his advertisers cannot be dismissed without reference to the notable See also:independence of advertisers' influence, which English and American newspaper proprietors authorize their editors to display. Whenever an See also:insurance company or a See also:bank goes wrong, the cry is raised that all the editors in Christendom had known for years that the See also:directors were imbeciles and rogues, but had conspired to keep See also:mute for the sake of an occasional advertisement.

When the See also:

British public persisted, not long ago, in paying See also:premium prices for the shares of over-capitalized companies, the See also:crash had no sooner come than the newspapers were accused of having puffed See also:pro-motions for the sake of the money received for See also:publishing prospectuses. As a matter of fact, in the case of the best dailies in England and America, the editor does not stand at all in See also:awe of the advertiser, and time after time the Money Article has ruthlessly attacked a promotion of which the See also:prospectus appeared in the very same issue. It is indeed to the interest of the advertiser, as well as to the interest of the reader, that this independence should be preserved, for the worth of any journal as an advertising See also:medium depends upon its possessing a See also:bona fide circulation among persons who believe it to be a serious and honestly conducted newspaper. All advertisers know that the See also:minor weeklies, which contain nothing but trade puffs, and are scattered broadcast among people who pay nothing for theircopies, are absolutely worthless from the advertiser's point of view. The most striking difference between the periodical press of Great Britain and that of America is, that in the former country the magazines and reviews See also:play but a secondary role, while in the United States the three or four monthlies possessing .the largest circulation are of the very first importance as advertising mediums. One reason for this is that the advertisements in an American See also:magazine are printed on as good paper, and printed with as great care, as any other part of the contents.. There are probably very few among American magazine readers who do not habitually look through the advertising pages, with the cer-. tainty that they will be entertained by the beauty of the advertiser's illustrations and the See also:quaint curtness of his phrases. Another reason is that the American monthly magazine goes to all parts of the United States, while, owing to the time required for long journeys on even the swiftest trains, no American daily paper can have so general a circulation as The Times in the United Kingdom. In comparison with points on the Pacific See also:coast, See also:Chicago does not seem far from New See also:York, yet, with the exception of one frenzied and altogether unsuccessful attempt, no New York daily has ever attempted to force a circulation . in Chicago. The American advertiser would, therefore, have to spend money on a great number of daily papers in order to reach as widespread a public as one successful magazine offers him. There is reason to believe that the English magazine publishers have erred gravely in taking what are known in the trade as insets," consisting of See also:separate See also:cards or sheets printed at the advertiser's cost, and accepted by the publisher at a specific charge for every thousand copies. This system of insetting has the See also:grave inconvenience that the advertiser finds himself compelled to print as many insets as the publisher asserts that he can use.

The publisher, on the other hand, is somewhat at the See also:

mercy of too enthusiastic agents and employes, who estimate over-confidently the edition of the periodical which will probably be printed for a certain month, and advertisers have had reason to fear that many of their insets were wasted. The added See also:weight and bulk of the insets cause inconvenience and expense to the newsdealer, as two ,or three insets printed upon cardboard are See also:equivalent to at least sixteen additional pages. Some news-dealers have further complicated the inset question by threatening to remove insets unless special See also:tribute be paid to them; and with all these difficulties to be considered, many magazine publishers have seriously considered the advisability of altogether discontinuing the practice of taking insets, and of confining their advertisements to the sheets they themselves print. In connexion with this subject, it may be added that many readers habitually shake loose bills out of a magazine before they begin to turn the pages, and that railway stations, railway carriages and even public streets are thus littered with trampled and muddy advertisements. The old practice of distributing handbills in the streets is dying a natural death, more or less hastened by local by-laws, and when the loose bills in magazines and cheap novels have ceased to exist no one will be the loser. Advertisements in the weekly press are on the whole more successful in England than in America. A few American weeklies See also:cope successfully with the increasing competition of the huge Sunday See also:editions of American daily papers. But even the most successful among them—a paper for boys—has hardly attained the prosperity of some among its English contemporaries in the field of weekly journalism. The See also:merchant who turns to these pages for practical suggestions concerning the advertising of his own business, can be given no better advice than to betake himself to an established advertising See also:agent of good repute, and be guided by his counsels. The See also:chief part that he can himself. play with advantage is to See also:note from day to day whether the agent is obtaining advantageous positions for his announcements. Every advertiser will naturally prefer a right-hand page to a See also:left-hand page, and the right side of the page to the left side of the page; while the advertiser who most indefatigably urges his claims upon the agent will, in the long run, obtain the largest share of the favours to be distributed. To the merchant who inclines to consider advertising in connexion with the broader aspects of his calling, it may be suggested that a new channel of trade demands very serious attention.

What is called in England " postal trade," and in America " See also:

mail order business," is growing very rapidly. Small dealers in both countries have complained very bitterly of the competition they suffer from the general dealers and from stores made up of departments which, under one roof, offer to the consumer every imaginable sort of merchandise. This general trading, which, on the one hand, seriously threatens the small trader, and on the other hand offers greater possibilities of profit to the proportionately small number of persons who can undertake business on so large a See also:scale, becomes infinitely more formidable when the general dealer endeavours not only to attract the trade of a town, but to make his place of business a centre from which he distributes by post his goods to remote parts of the country. In America, where the weight of parcels carried by post is limited to 4 lb, and where the private carrying companies are forced to charge a very much higher rate for See also:carriage from New York to See also:California than for shorter distances, the centralization of trade is necessarily limited; but it is no See also:secret that, at the present moment, persons residing in those parts of the United Kingdom most remote from London habitually avail themselves of the English See also:parcel post, which carries packages up to 11 lb, in order to procure a great part of their See also:household supplies direct from general dealers in London. A trading company, which conducts its operations upon such a scale as this, can afford to spend an almost unlimited sum in advertising throughout the United Kingdom, and even the trader who offers only one specific class of merchandise is beginning to recognize the possibility of appealing to the whole country. The following is a brief See also:summary of the laws and regulations dealing with advertisements in public places in certain Legal resuliatton. of the countries of Continental See also:Europe and in the United States of America, the chief authority for which is an See also:official return issued by the British Home Office in 1903. See also:France.—The permission of the owner is alone required for the placing of advertisements on private buildings; but buildings, walls, &c., belonging to the government or local authorities are reserved exclusively for official notices, &c.; these alone can be printed on See also:white paper, all others must be on coloured paper. Municipal authorities control the size, construction, &c., of hoardings used for advertising purposes, and the police have full powers over the exhibition of indecent or other objectionable advertisements. The Societe pour la See also:protection See also:des paysages, founded in 1901, has for one of its See also:objects the prevention of advertisements which disfigure the scenery or are otherwise objectionable. See also:Germany.—By §43 of the Imperial Commercial See also:Ordinance permission to post any trade advertisement in a public street, square, &c., must be first obtained from the local police. The police also control (by §55 of the Imperial Press Law 1874) advertisements which are not of a trade character, but this regulation does not affect the right of the federal legislatures to make regulations in regard to them (§3o). It would be impossible to give in any detail the police regulations as to advertisements which exist, e.g. in See also:Prussia, but the following rules in force in See also:Berlin may be given: Public advertisements in public streets and places may be posted only on the appliances, such as See also:pillar posts, &c., provided for the purpose.

Owners of property may post advertisements on their own property but only such as concern their own interests. Advertisements on public conveyances are forbidden. In 1902 a Prussian law was passed authorizing the police to forbid all advertisement hoardings, &c., which would disfigure particularly beautiful landscapes in rural districts. The See also:

Hesse-See also:Darmstadt Act of 1902 prohibits the placing of any advertisements, posters, &c., on a See also:monument officially protected under the act, if it would be likely to injure the appearance of the monument. As instances of the numerous local provisions against the abuse of advertising may be citedthose of See also:Augsburg and See also:Lubeck, by which any advertisement that would injure the Stadtbild or appearance of the town may be prohibited and removed by the local authority (see G. See also:Baldwin See also:Brown, The Care of See also:Ancient Monuments, 1905). Full powers exist under the Imperial Criminal Code for the suppression of indecent or objectionable advertisements. See also:Austria.—Permission of the police is required for the exhibition of printed notices in public places other than such as are of purely local or See also:industrial interest, such as notices of entertainment, leases, sales, &c., or See also:theatre programmes, and these can only be shown in places approved by the local authorities (Press Law 1862). The press-police act as advertisement censors and determine whether an advertisement can be allowed or not. In See also:Hungary there are no general laws or regulations, but the municipalities have power to issue ordinances dealing with the question. See also:Italy.—All control rests with the municipal and communal authorities, who may decide on the places where advertisements may or may not be posted, and can prevent hoardings being placed on or near ancient monuments or public buildings. See also:Switzerland.—The Federal Government has no authority to See also:deal with this question; certain of the cantons have regulations, e.g.

See also:

Lucerne prohibits the public advertising of inferior goods by means of a false description, See also:Basel-Stadt gives the police the power of censoring all advertisements. Many of the communal authorities throughout Switzerland have special restrictions and regulations. In See also:Zurich the police choose the advertising stations, in Berne the See also:municipality possesses a See also:monopoly of the right of erecting advertisements. The Society known as the Ligue pour la conservation de la Suisse pittoresque or Schweitzerischer Heimatschutz has for one of its objects the preservation of scenery from disfiguring advertisements. United States.—There is no federal legislation on the subject, the matter being one for regulation by the states, which in most cases have left it to the various municipalities and other local authorities. With regard to indecent and objectionable advertisements some states have special legislation on the matter, others are content with the ordinary criminal laws or police powers or with the law of nuisance or of trespass. Thus control can be exercised over such advertisements as are dangerous to public safety, See also:health or morals. The state of New York prohibits advertisements of See also:lotteries. It would be impossible to give in detail the different laws and regulations passed in the various states or by municipalities. The following are some of the more striking See also:measures adopted in certain of the states. In See also:Massachusetts no advertising signs or devices are allowed on the public highways. Power has been granted to city and town authorities to regulate advertisements in, near or visible from public parks.

In the See also:

District of See also:Columbia no advertisement is allowed which obstructs a See also:highway, and all See also:distribution of handbills, circulars, &c., in public streets, parks, &c., is prohibited. This prohibition against what are generally known as " dodgers " is very general in the local regulations throughout the states. In See also:Illinois, city See also:councils are empowered on the See also:incorporation of the city to regulate and prevent the use of streets, sidewalks and public grounds for signs, handbills and advertisements, &c., and also the exhibition of See also:banners, placards, in the streets or sidewalks. Chicago has a See also:body of most stringent rules, but they apparently have been found impossible to enforce; thus no advertisement See also:board more than 12 ft. square within 400 ft. of a public See also:park or See also:boulevard, no advertisements other than small ones See also:relating to the business carried on in the premises where the advertisement is posted,. or of sales, &c., are allowed in streets where three-quarters of the houses are " residences "only. Prohibition is also extended to the advertisements of those professing to cure diseases or giving notice of the sale of medicines. In See also:Boston there are regulations prohibiting projecting or overhanging signs in the streets, and special rules as to the height at which street signs and advertisements must be placed. The distribution of " dodgers " in the streets is prohibited. Advertisements for places of amusement must be approved by the See also:committee or licences. France, See also:Belgium, Italy and certain of the cantons in Switzer-See also:land impose a tax on advertisements, as do certain of the United See also:Taxation. States of America, where the form is usually that of a licence duty on billposters or advertising agencies. In many cases in the United States this is imposed by the municipalities. In every case both in Europe and America advertisements in newspapers are not subject to any tax.

With regard to the literature of advertising, in addition to the See also:

historical article in the Edinburgh Review for February 1843, already mentioned, and that in the Quarterly Review for June 1855, the Society for Checking the Abuses of Public Advertising issue a journal, A Beautiful See also:World. The Journal of the Society of Coin parative Legislation (N.S. xvi. 1906) contains an article by W.J.B. See also:Byles on Foreign Law and the Control of Advertisements in Public Places. The advertisers' handbooks, issued by the leading advertising agents, will also be found to contain practical information of great use to the advertiser. (H. R. H.*; C.

End of Article: ADVERTISEMENT, or ADVERTISING (Fr. avertissement, warning, or notice)

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