Advertisements
By: Henley
Our newspapers and magazines are full of advertisements. The radio broadcasts advertisements. We see advertisement on television. The cinema flashes advertisements on the silver-screen. We find advertisements on area-railing, building-walls, shop-fronts, electric-posts, trolleys, trucks, railway stations and air-ports. Advertisement balloons roar high up in the sky. Sometimes advertisements are produced like a film on clouds. Indeed, we live in an age of advertisements.
Mr. J.B. Priestly says that ours is “a world of artful advertisement”. He does not like these advertisement. They do not believe in perfect life, a life which is all goodness, truth and beauty. And yet we are somehow taken in by our extravagant and exaggerating advertisements. Our newspapers and magazines are full of advertisements which promise us perfect life with their goods. But we cannot have this perfect life. The goods turn out to be frauds. We are disillusioned. The perfect life is spread out before us every day but it changes and withers at a touch. We are led to expect perfection. We do not find it. We feel foiled.
But in these days of competition advertisements are a vital necessity. Trade and industry have expanded. Our wants have increased considerably. Thousands of things are made. Thousands of things are needed. Without advertisements, Producers would not be able to bring their goods to the notice of consumers. Consumers would not be able to know where to find the things they want. Employers and intending employees require the help of advertisements. So do owners of cinema-houses and cireus proprietors and exhibition managers and all others who wish to attract clients for what they have to offer.
Advertisement are important from the point of view of information and knowledge. If we read them carefully we come to know what the world is making and how it is progressing. Our knowledge increases. We acquire the power of discrimination and judgement. We become practical and worldly-wise.
Modern advertising is no hypocritical humbug. It is a highly scientific art and a highly artistic science. It studies human nature. It produces most pleasing and attractive advertisements. These advertisements catch our eyes. They break down our sales resistance. They tempt us and impel us to buy things even when we do not really need them. They are an industry in and by themselves. They yield much needed money to newspapers and magazines. They provide employment to thousands of writers, artists, craftsmen and office-workers.
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