Vagabond Editorials

(Continued from Page 6) hoarding places contain probably enough more to make a total of thirty-two billions of dollars. Take the fear out of the hearts of the owners of that money and every man and woman in this country would be back to work in sixty days.

There will be an orsy :, ;";,", in this country some of these days, that will be just as definite as the present condition of non-spending. Human nature likes to spend Eroney, likes to buy things, likes to dress up, and fix up, and throw the dollars around. And within six months after we start up the prosperity hill there will develop one of the greatest spending eras this nation has known. Americans don't enjoy wearing out and running down all their possessions, and the reaction is going to be hot when it comes.

A man died the "an", ;r-** n* done rnore to prove the useful and practical application of advertising to selling than any other man in history-William Wrigley, the gum king. It was not the flavor, or the quality, or the looks, or the service behind Wrigley's gum that made Wrigley a naulti-multi-multi-millionaire. It was simply the advertisitrg. And no one knew it better than he did. And he never failed to give the credit where credit was due.

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He said to his son, when he turned the management of the gum business over to him: "No matter what the condition of business-never stop advertising !"

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He made rnany famous remarks about advertising. One of the most quoted was tlris: "I don't know whether advertising is an art, or a business, or a science. All I know is that when I advertise, I sell gumo and when I stop advertising, I stop selling gum."

*rF*

His case is more thoroughly demonstrable as an advertising miracle than probably any other in history. Other men have devised some certain product, given it an attractive name, wrapper, or sornething that appealed, and sold it to the world through advertising. But Wrigley did more than that. When he started advertising Wrigley's gum he owned nothing but a narne and a wrapper. He contracted the manufacture of his gum by people who had gum factories but couldn't keep them stocked with orders. He sold gum first, then bought and delivered it. All he had was his name and his advertising. He spent a million dollars for advertising before he made any gum. And he has spent one hundred million dollars all told for advertising his nickle article. And he made probably that much by doing so.

Speaking of advertisi"*, n*O, " good one from Printer's Ink: "If you don't believe it pays to advertise, see how many of your friends can name the seventeen other amendments to the Constitution of the United States."

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Sometimes I seriously wonder if this depression hasn't been getting us MENTALLY as well as financially. When I think of some of the stuff the American public apparently accepts and swallows of late, I can't help wondering. Often I turn the dial of my radio in the evening, and have my ear drums rapped and my reason violated before I can get off that particular patch of ether. Oh music ! Oh entertainment ! Oh news! Oh advertising! What crimes are committted in thy name ! *t+

Some of our national advertisers are thrusting upon us pitiful pap and ridiculous folderol that would turn the stomach of a Digger Indian; and it comes in such a variety of ways as must seriously strain the full capacity of a whole battery of off-balance mentalities to create and develop. As a fair example think of a screeching tenor that sounds like an unholy cross between the bray of an asthmatic burro and the caterwaul of an outraged tomcat, uttering discordant clamors and noisome maunderings in the name of news; and in fashion so egotistic that the listener instinctively grasps his nose firmly between the thumb and forefinger of one hand, while he madly whirls the dial with the other. :1. rF *

The question I ask myself-and ask it in fear and trembling-is, has the public mind really sunk to the moronic level that these money slinging adveftisers evidently assume? If it HAS, then indeed we have something to worry about in this depression. Fortunately for my own peace of mind I incline to the belief that the American public does NOT enjoy or appreciate such miasmic offerings, and that if the ether were so arranged as to work both ways, the outraged radio audience would drown out with hisses, cat-calls, and the "Bronx cheer", a lot of the highest priced programs on the air today; programs that reflect against our intellectual solvency.