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Show HONEST AND ETHICAL ADVERTISING Advertising, in all its real or alleged virtues and vices, is a perennial subject of discussion. It has its dedicated opponents as well as its defenders. There are very wide differences of opinion as to how powerfjl and persuasive it is. Still, one thing is certain it provides the commercial commer-cial support for the vast majority of our newspapers, magazines mag-azines and other media of communication. Without it, these either would net exist, or would have to be priced in a figure that would deny them to all but the comparative few. An interesting contribution to the subject was recently recent-ly made by President John E. Swearingen of the Standard Oil Company (Indiana) in a speech before the Advertising Club of Omaha. Advertising, he pointed out, has gone on from its rather shaky beginnings of long ago to where it is one of the major communicating forces in our society. Last year alone, something like $14 billion was spent on advertising in all its many ramif ications. It makes a vast contribution to literacy, by providing the major part of the revenues of some 1,700 dailiy newspapers, 9,000 weeklies, thousands of magazines, some of whose circulations run to many millions, and radio and television. This, Mr. Swearingen clearly believes, is all to the good. But he also sees another side to the coin. As he puts it, the usefulness of honest and ethical advertising as ". . . one of the major communication forces in our society" is threatened by "questionable practices which work to destroy de-stroy the credibility of all advertising." And then he makes an unusual point. In his words, "By the time you move up the scale to our largest institution, the Federal government, govern-ment, it is hard to escape the conclusion that here we have stumbled upon a classic example of slone throwing from a glass house so far as governmental protests over misleading mis-leading advertising to the private sector are concerned." The point is, he goes on, that the federal government is the largest advertiser we have. It doesn't buy the space but all its Important announcements are given maximum maxi-mum publicity, to which commercial advertising must take a back seat. This is inevitable the public is entitled entit-led to the information. But Mr. Swearingen's criticism is that government releases of information are frequently misleading. In this, he cites chapter and verse. One is the "fanfare regarding the level of the budget." Another is dramatic announcements by federal agencies of charges against individuals or corporations, followed by hardly any comment when the charges are not sustained. And a current case, affecting millions, has to do with the great publicity given by government sources to last year's income in-come tax cut. Relatively little attention, however, was called to the fact that, as a pump-priming device, the withholding rates were cut even more sharply, with the result that on April 15 a great many people will owe the government more than ever before. Some who have been getting refunds in the past will have an income tax bill to pay for the first time. Mr. Swearingen Iiai faith in the need, worth and general gen-eral honesty of advertising. But he does provide a worthwhile worth-while warning: "Widespread loss of faith in commercial advertisements would be a damaging blow to the economy and thp communications media themselves. Widespread loss of faith in governmental communications would lead to a cynical withdrawal from participation in the democratic demo-cratic process at home; on the world stage, governmental failure to maintain the credibility of its major communications communi-cations would invite destruction. . . . l !! l.4MnMl ... U 4Viaea "We OOVIOUSIV lUIIUUl ouuiu uuin, n.ivb. .v ... ... two areas Is indispensable." |