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The language of advertising and its impact on the community.

Advertisers tend to think big and perhaps this is why they are always coming in for criticism. Their critics seem to resent them because they have a flair for self-promotion and because they have so much to throw around. “It is iniquitous”, they say, “that this entirely unproductive industry should absorb millions of pounds each year. It only goes to show how much profit the big companies are making. Why don’t they stop advertising and reduce the price of their goods? After all, it’s the consumer who pays… ”

The poor old consumer! He’d have to pay a great deal more if advertising didn’t create mass markets for products. It is precisely because of the heavy advertising that consumer goods are soc cheap. But we get the wrong idea if we think the only purpose of advertising is to sell goods. Another equally important function is to inform. A great deal of the knowledge we have about the household goods derives largely from the advertisements we read. Advertisements introduce us to new products or remind us of the existence of ones we already know about.

Lots of people pretend that they never read advertisements, but this claim may be seriously doubted. It is hardly possible not to read advertisements these days. Just think what a railway station or a newspaper would be like without advertisements. Would you enjoy gazing at a blank wall or reading railway bye-laws while waiting for a train? Would you like to read only closely-printed columns of news in your daily paper? A cheerful, witty advertisement makes such a difference to a drab wall or a newspaper full of the daily ration of calamities.

We must not forget either that advertising makes a positive contribution to our pocket. Newspapers, commercial radio and television companies could not subsist without these sources of revenue. The fact that we pay so little for our daily paper, or can enjoy so many broadcast programmes is due entirely to the money spent by advertisers. Just think what a newspaper would cost if we had to pay its full price!

Another thing we must not forget is the small ads, which are in virtually every newspaper and magazine. What a tremendously useful service they perform for the community! Just about anything can be accomplished through these columns. For instance, you can find a job, buy or sell a house, announce a birth, marriage and death in what used to be called the “hatch, match and dispatch” columns; but by far the most fascinating section is the personal or agony column. No other item in a newspaper provides such entertaining reading or offers such a deep insight into human nature. It is the best advertisement for advertising there is!