OUTLINES GROWTH OF ADVERTISING

Mr. Melville H. Smith '03, giving the third is a series of informal talks on the general subject of advertising under the auspices of the CRIMSON and the Lampoon, spoke last night on "Why is a Magazine" stressing the factors which have caused the growth of national magazine advertising and the influence of such magazines in promoting sales. Mr. Smith illustrated his talk with figures and charts taken mostly from the statistics of the Curtis Publishing Company, publishers of the Saturday evening Post, the Ladies' Home Journal, and the Country Gentleman, of which company Mr. Smith is the New England manager.

"National magazine advertising," Mr. Smith said, "although not really under way until 1915, has grown to large proportions; 150 million dollars being invested in it last year. This growth, "he pointed out, "is a result of the combination of several factors. It has been caused not only by an increase in wealth and in education, but by the automobile, which has increased the number of people in reach of those stores which sell the advertised articles. The loss of some of the export business of previous years has also led to the use of magazine advertising to stimulate the domestic market.

"This system of promoting sales," he continued, "reaches the more influential classes in the community, and so its effectiveness is increased by the imitation of the leadership of these people. Another factor which has contributed to the increase in this method of advertising is the use of more pleasing forms in copy and printing, with a consequent growth in the interest to readers.

"The advertisement alone," Mr. Smith concluded, "gets only one-half of the results, the salesmen must do the rest by punishing the actual sale of the goods. We may think of the salesmen as the infantry and advertising as the artillery furnishing a barrage for every campaign of national importance."