THE PERSUASIVE VOICE
SIR,—Your reviewer of Mr. Thompson's Voice of Civilisation : An Enquiry into Advertising ends his notice, " We can be grateful that Britain has not reached such heights of advertising as the United States, and that the B.B.C. has not succumbed to the appeal of this glorified racket." It is hard to understand this generally accepted complacency with regard to advertising in this country. In the September number of the Reader's Digest I read with astonishment an article on "Fact and Fancy in Dentifrice Ads." It appears that the American public is protected against falsification in advertising by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which can issue " cease-and-desist " orders to offending advertisers. My astonishment was that such an article should• have been allowed to circulate at all in this country, where the fraudulent advertiser (and his name is Legion) is said to be protected by the trade libel laws. The "Pink Tooth Brush " campaign, for instance, has been stopped in the U.S. as an advertising scare ramp ; but there is nothing to stop it here. Not only is scare advertising protected by law, but the daily (and provincial weekly) Press benefits to such an extent from advertising which is wholly undesirable (dubious alcoholic preparations, quack remedies, &c.) that it will never publish any comment on the goose that lays the golden eggs. Also during wartime there is a spate of unnecessary advertisements at the public expense. I do not mean the informative admonishments of the various wartime Ministries, but the advertisement' of unobtainable pre-war goods obviously inserted at the expense d
E.P.T. (thus defrauding the tax-payer) under the pretext of keeping the name before the public. Would it not be an excellent thing if the Home Office had a branch empowered to issue " cease-and-desist " orders to untruthful, fraudulent, and undesirable advertisers?
As regards the B.B.C., it seems to me to have developed a brand of advertising which is positively nauseous. Listen to the bumptious dance band leaders and their so-called " boys." How often they come with apparent reluctance " to the mike " to bid us a condescending " Good- night " and tell us when they are on the air again. Listen to their fatuous introductions: "Listeners will be glad to hear that our guest artist tonight is none other than that captivating—soul-stirring—world- renowned—stupendous favourite—Ken Bloggs! " Then there are groups of singers who, in the guise of a " signature tune " sing about themselves and their accomplishments over and over again. Performers should not be allowed to take advantage of the privilege of going on the air to blotv their own trumpets at every turn.—Your obedient servant,
2 Sussex House, Raymond Road, S.W. 19. H. P. GARWOOD.
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