The Advertising Division

THE work of the Committee was so distinctly in the nature of an advertising campaign, though shot through and through with an evangelical quality, that we turned almost instinctively to the advertising profession for advice and assistance. As it happened, however, there was a sad lack of accord in the initial contacts between the government and the advertising experts. When the First Liberty Loan was announced a committee headed by Herbert Houston, William H. Rankin, and O. C. Harn came to Washington to urge a campaign based upon the outright purchase of advertising space in newspapers and other mediums.

There was no question as to the patriotism of the men, nor do I think that there was much doubt as to the value and efficiency of their plan. When one considers the disruption of business occasioned by each Liberty Loan and the appalling waste in stupid or misapplied energy, the conviction grows that paid advertising — controlled, authoritative, driving to its mark with the precision of a rifle-ball — would have been quicker, simpler, and in the end far cheaper.

It was in the first days of war enthusiasm, however, and there was a definite repugnance to any suggestion that savored of profit. "Voluntary" was the magic word, and even though it took five dollars to secure the gift of a THOMAS CUSACK JESSE H. NEALE 0. C. HARN dime, there was a glamour about the donation that blinded every one to the economic waste. Aside from this, advertising was regarded as a business, not a profession, and the majority looked upon the advertising agent with suspicion, even when he was not viewed frankly as a plausible pirate belonging to the same school of endeavor as the editionde-luxe book canvasser.

In any event, the advertising experts withdrew from Washington, feeling somewhat as though casualties had been sustained, but instead of sulking they proceeded to prove themselves and their theories by actual demonstration. Among other things, Mr. Rankin evolved what came to be known as the "Chicago Plan," being the purchase of space in the press by individuals or groups, and the donation of this space to the uses of government. As general director of a Red Cross drive in Chicago, for instance, he had induced a number of business men to stand the cost of thirty-five full-page advertisements in the daily papers, with the result that every dollar membership was secured at an expense of two and a half cents as opposed to an expense of twenty-three cents per member in New York, where all effort was "voluntary."

The "Chicago Plan" was applied to the First Liberty Loan by almost every advertising club and agent in the country, and it is safe to say that fully one million dollars were contributed to the campaign, the donated space being filled with effective appeals prepared by selling experts. In Muncie, Indiana, where full dependence was placed upon the Rankin idea, not a single solicitor being used to sell bonds, the city more than doubled its quota in record time.

The Second Liberty Loan saw much the same achievements on the part of the advertising fraternity, and the showing gave me opportunity, even as it afforded justification, for recognition of advertising as a real profession, and to include it as an honorable and integral part of the war-machinery of government. As a result of our recommendation the following executive order was issued:

I hereby create, under the jurisdiction of the Committee on Public Information, heretofore established by executive order of April 14, 1917, a Division of Advertising for the purpose of receiving through the proper channels the generous offers of the advertising forces of the nation to support the effort of the government to inform public opinion properly and adequately.

[Signed] WOODROW WILSON.

This authority was instantly exercised by the appointment of a board of control composed of the following presidents of the leading advertising organizations:

Mr. William H. Johns, chairman, president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, representing 115 leading firms of this kind in the country; Mr. Thomas Cusack, one of the acknowledged leaders of the poster and painted bulletin industry; Mr. W. C. D'Arcy, president of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World, representing 180 advertising clubs with a combined membership of 17,000; Mr. O. C. Harn, chairman of the National Commission of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World; Mr. Herbert S. Houston, formerly president of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World; Mr. Lewis B. Jones, president of the Association of National Advertisers; and Mr. Jesse H. Neal, executive secretary of the Associated Business Papers, consisting of 500 leading trade and technical publications.

By this one stroke of President Wilson's pen every advertising man in the United States was enrolled in America's second line, and from the very moment of their enrolment we could feel the quickening of effort, the intensification of endeavor. Offices were taken in the Metropolitan Tower in New York, a skilled force assembled, and from these headquarters the generals directed the energies of an army of experts.

A first effort, as a matter of course, was in connection with the advertising space, and donations of space, made by the publishers of national magazines, trade and agricultural papers, and theater programs in all the principal cities. Over 800 publishers of monthly and weekly periodicals gave space worth $159,275 per month for the duration of the war, and this was increasing monthly when the armistice terminated the arrangement. In addition, advertisers themselves purchased $340,981 worth of space in various nationally circulated periodicals and turned it over to the Division of Advertising to use for government purposes. These were definite purchases for 1918, but indications had already been given that renewals would follow in 1919. Figuring on a yearly basis, these donations totaled approximately $2,250,000, but only about $1,594,- 000 was used, owing to the sudden cessation of activities. The same plan was used in connection with the billboards and painted signs, and while exact figures are not obtainable, a just estimate of these donations cannot be put under $250,000.

Never was there a machinery that operated with such automatic efficiency. Through its Washington representative, Mr. Carl Wai berg, the division maintained direct contact with every branch of the American war effort, and whether it was the Treasury Department, the War Department, or the navy, the Shipping Board or the Food Administration, the Red Cross or the Fuel Administration, all that was necessary was the plain statement of the specific need. Mr. Johns and his associates did the rest. They studied the problem, planned the campaign, decided upon the agency best fitted to prepare the copy, or, as was more often the case, three or four agencies were instructed to turn in copy. When the selection had been made, the copy was turned over to the Division of Pictorial Publicity for illustration by some artist, then decision as to the publications best suited to the particular message, after which the plates went out.

Aside from newspaper and trade-press advertising, the use of billboards and the painted sign, another element of tremendous publicity value was contributed by the International Association of Display Men. This organization appointed a National War Service Committee on window displays, the chairman of which, Mr. C. J. Potter, took a desk in the New York offices of the Division of Advertising and not only turned over to the division the entire window-display resources of the association in six hundred cities, but directed the entire work of creating patriotic window displays throughout the country so that, timed to the minute, they supplemented the division's campaigns in the periodicals. The window-display committee was instrumental in the building of sixty thousand reported displays on various government subjects, and probably hundreds more unreported.

Perhaps a detailed description of one particular job will give a clearer conception of the energy, originality, and high value of the Committee's advertising associates and their organized method of work. For instance, it was the nation's task to register thirteen million men on September 12th. The enormous amount of detail compelled unavoidable delay, and as a result about two weeks were allowed to the office of the Provost-Marshal-General in which to reach every American between eighteen and forty-five with specific information and instructions.

Every resource of the Committee was put at the service of General Crowder, but the great burden of effort fell entirely upon the Division of Advertising. Through Mr. W7alberg these men made a quick and authoritative study of the problem and outlined a nation-wide campaign that was altered in no detail, and that carried through the registration without a single hitch.

Expert copy-writers, working night and day, put the facts of registration in advertising form, the Division of Pictorial Publicity furnished illustrations, display experts put the product into type, and the whole was issued as an Advertising Service Bulletin and sent to every advertiser and advertising agent in the United States. Here, then, in form ready to use, was advertising copy in any space from one column to a page, suitable to any medium from a metropolitan daily to a country weekly, and through the generosity of local advertisers and the efforts of local advertising clubs these direct appeals went into the press of the United States. One full-page advertisement went to every agricultural, trade, and technical journal, while other class publications were dealt with in the same specialized manner.

The next publication was a Selective Service Register— a regular newspaper with one side of the sheet given over entirely to questions and answers, specific instructions, and general appeals; the other side a striking poster, blazoning the fundamental facts of registration. Newspapers and individuals, after reading or copying the stories, were then able to paste or hang up the sheet in such manner as to let the poster carry its message to every passer-by.

The Division of Distribution, augmenting its force and working day and night shifts, distributed some 20,- 000,000 copies of the two publications to the following addresses: 18,000 newspapers, 11,000 national advertisers and agencies, 10,000 chambers of commerce and their members, 30,000 manufacturers' associations, 22,000 labor unions, 10,000 public libraries, 32,000 banks, 58,000 general stores, 3,500 Young Men's Christian Association branches, 10,000 members of the Council of National Defense, 1,000 advertising clubs, 56,000 post-offices, 55,000 railroad station agents, 5,000 draft boards, 100,000 Red Cross organizations, 12,000 manufacturers' agents.

The foreign-language groups were reached by the establishment of direct contacts with 600 papers printed in nineteen different languages. Every advertisement, every instruction, and every appeal was translated into all of these tongues and the papers turned over their news and advertising columns with a generosity not surpassed by the native press. Fully 5,000,000 citizens were instructed in this direct fashion.

Another problem was the rural districts far from railroads and not reached by the press. A special mailingcard was devised and sent to 43,000 Rural Free Delivery routes, 18,000 of which were out on railroads. Other cards, brilliant and effective, were planned, printed, and put in the street-cars of the country, while almost overnight the poster and sign-board people swung into action and plastered the dead walls and boards of the nation with stirring appeals. Added to this, more than 37,000 registration posters were displayed in the store-windows of some 600 cities.

The output of the Division of Advertising, with its careful analysis of the details of registration, served also as ammunition for the Four Minute Men, and fifty thousand speakers backed up the printed word. Even the Division of Films was brought into the team-play.

The following excerpt from a letter addressed to the Division of Advertising may be accepted as the general attitude of the entire War Department:

Over and above the fine organization of the Committee's staff, as a whole, what has impressed me particularly in your division is the thoroughness with which you have organized the patriotic assistance of private citizens in contributing to the public service rendered by the Committee. It is genuinely American in its method — this voluntary union of individual citizens to accomplish these results which in some continental countries are left to the vast army of government officials.

[Signed] E. H. CHOWDER, Provost-Marshal-General.

In similar fashion the division planned and prepared the Shipping Board's campaign for 250,000 shipyard volunteers, swung into line on the Third and Fourth Liberty Loans, and handled special drives for the Department of Agriculture, the Council of National Defense, the Fuel and Food Commissions, the United War Work Drive, and the Red Cross. It was the division, by the way, that conceived the idea of that wonderful drawing " The Greatest Mother in the World," since used as the official Red Cross symbol, and appealing to the heart of humanity from every dead wall in every country.

"Smileage" was another victory for the division. The Commission on Training Camp Activities, it may be remembered, devised a system of camp theaters to which a small admission fee was charged. Ticket-books, known as "Smileage," were issued with the idea that the civilian population should buy them and present them to the soldiers so that the boys might not be put even to a minimum of expense. The Division of Advertising, almost in the very first week of its existence, took hold of this moribund plan and breathed the breath of a new life into it. The Smileage advertiser was prepared and printed an eight-page publication containing every known kind and size of "display ad." attractively illustrated — and through donations of space by both press and merchants in each community these advertisements were reproduced until they reached the eye of virtually every American. Inside of three weeks the supply of printed books was sold out entirely and "Smileage," instead of sinking deeper into failure, rose to conspicuous success.

When the Department of Labor launched its plan of government employment offices, Mr. Walberg carried the idea to the Division of Advertising, and the result was another demonstration of efficiency. The United States Employment Service Bulletin was issued — sixteen pages of sample "ads." — and 60,000 copies were circulated to the press, manufacturers, and advertisers. More than 11,000 printed advertisements, ranging from one column to a page, were received by the Labor Department, showing the extent to which the contents of the bulletin had been copied.

With equal intelligence and enthusiasm, the division put itself back of the Committee in each and all of its undertakings. By way of experiment, the Committee sent some war trophies and war material to San Francisco, calling it the Allied War Exposition. The Division of Advertising saw its possibilities instantly, and it was due to its insistence, and a promise of its aid, that we changed the plan into the United States Government War Exposition, enlarging and broadening the exhibit, and sent it across the country from coast to coast. In Chicago, for instance, we took the entire Lake front, erected buildings and dug trenches, and in two weeks more than two million people entered the gates, our books showing a clean profit of $318,000 at the close.

As in every other activity of the Committee, there is no exact method by which the value of the division's services can be measured in terms of money. We have record of advertising space in national mediums to the amount of $1,594,000. We know that the contributions of street-car advertising, billboards, and painted signs totaled about $250,000. No approximation can be made, however, of the thousands of columns used in the daily press, scores of miscellaneous donations, and the almost weekly window displays in 600 cities. Nor is it possible to figure the value of the volunteer aid rendered by agencies and employees, for not only was every hour of time an absolute gift, but not one cent of charge was ever made for services, or even for materials. When all is said and done, it may be stated in perfect safety that the contributions of the Division of Advertising, had they been paid for, would have cost the government $5,000,000.

Money, however, is a poor measure of value in connection with the importances of life. Far above the donations of ability and space were the generous enthusiasms that every advertising man brought to bear upon the war effort of America. Had the Committee done nothing else, its existence would have been justified by the decision that gave advertising the dignity of a profession and incorporated its dynamic abilities in American team-play. 12