FOURTEENTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE AUSTRALIAN,
ASSOCIATION OF NATIONAL ADVERTISERS HELD AT
CANBERRA, A. C. T. 11TH OCTOBER, 1965
Mr. Chairman, LIdies and Gentlemen
I '. ill pursue a very satisfactory practice
that I ii.. ve established over the years and declare this
conference open.
Hivin, said that, I suppose I ought to explain one
or two things.' The first is that I Jeoerve no credit whatever,
no particular virtue is involved in coming here this morning.
I c. uoe under orders. I received my orders from a good friend
of mine, Sir Frnk P. icker, who reminded me at the time he made
the demand that he published a certain number of journals.
I'll refrain from mentioning them; you know them and, as no
politician ever knows where the next good deed will come from,
I c. 7iL. e. I h,. ve been fascinated by this advertising business
for a long time but I've never fuite understood it. The
Ch'iirman said that I am a good publio relations man' I mt to
assure you that I the despair of everybody who sets himself
up as a public relations consultant. I non't profess to be good
at that kind of thing though it' 2 worked out reasonably well
over the last few years.
But I certainly do need some instruction on this
matter of the advertising that I see most frequently promoted
by some of you, and which I see here on the commercial television
station. I '. rant to tell you at once that this fascinates me;
it really does. I'LI sitting there on the few occasions when
I can look at the T. V. I'ra terribly interested in the fate of
the hero, perhaps of Mr. Simon Templar and just as the villain
walks through the door points the pistol and says, : Stand
back Templar," tue next voice says, " How'd you like to have
your washing down in the main street": It i6 only as a result
of long experience and a certain amount, no doubt, of native
genius, that I've been able to discover where the film proper
ends and the advertisement begins: Just as similarly, when
the heroine in the glamourous mode of twenty years ago is
reaching the point, the whole demeanour of the play suddenly
changes and you see her down on her knees scrubbing the floor
and somebody saying something about immonia.
Now, I don't profess to understand these things, but
I think you have added to the gaiety of the nation by advertising
on television. I sat down one night and thought, " Now, really,
some of this annoys me." I am an ordinary customer so to
speak. Then I realised that of course that is the art of
advertising. You remember things that irritate you much
longer than you remember things that please you. But if you're
irritated and say, " Oh, I'm fed up with this detergent;' next
time -ou go in to buy a detergent, it is the one you buy:
Th.. t I believe is the whole principle of advertising.
Now all that is by way of preamble; the truth of the
matter is and ycu have made it quite clear in your own
constitution and your own documents the truth is that
advertising has become a vital element in the whole of private
enterprise and commercial operation and, indeed, as we've / 2
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been reminded, in Government activities, there could be no
business I suppose worth speaking about except a very elementary
one, if the manufacturer, or the wholesaler, had to rely
entirely on individuals going around showing samples of his
goods. If ie is to be in touch with the consumers, if he's
o' develop the large sales that are demanded by the desire
for a large production and a successful enterprise, then
advertising must be the means.
Therefore, advertising which brings the consumer
into touch with the seller is, I believe, a vital element in
commerce, and because it is a vital element in commerce, it
requires one more attribute. In the long run no commodity
is going to maintain its sales indefinite y unless it has
quality and regularity of supply but above all things, a
standard of quality that people have come to expect. This is
a very very important thing in commerce, and if you are to have
a maintenance of quality in the stuff that is sold the goods
that are sold, the services that are sold, then it's equally
clear that advertising must have quality. Otherwise advertising
would be in conflict with the commodity or service that is
being soldi Quality in advertising is just as important as
ouality in that hlch is being provided by the seller. Now I
think hat is clear enough and it is all the more clear when we
remember as all of you do, as I do, that this country adheres
to a system of free enterprise and will not tolerate the idea
that comDetitive enterprise will bring about a lowering of
standards for the sake of quick sales, but depends in the long
run on the raising of standards, certainly on their maintenance,
and therefore on the perpetuation and growth of sales to
advertising of auality. I don't mean advertising that's
directed to highbrows because highbrows are a very small proportion
of the community, but advertising which has its appeal to
ordinary men and women and does not strike them as being either
absurd or untrue. However, I know that this association of yours has
for many years advocated these very ideas. I'm not stating
anything Tresh. I am for a few minutes preaching to the
converted. Now the establishment of these standards, the
maintenance of quality seems to me, as it seems to you, to
depend a great deal on corporate experience and corporate
judgment. That is why you have formed an Association. I
daresay that any one of you representing substantial concerns
would have felt quite competent to work out his omw advertising
plans, to engage his own advertising men, go about the various
things that are done. But a ouarter of a century ago or
thereabouts, you decided that there was much to be gained by
having corporate judgment, the development of a common standard
and so you got together and if I may say so, Sir, with enormous
success. Your success is best demonstrated by the wonderful
conference this morning, added to which I am told as the day is
fine, you're going to conduct a series of little talks while
perambulating in the sun. This is very gosd. The old Latin
tag you remember, " salvatore ambulante". You'll become the
peripatetic school of philosophers this morning, and this is
good. This will lead to intimacy of discussion and it will all
end up with a corporate mind and corporate judgment. / 3
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The last thing I want to tell you about this great
topic I don't profess to understand very perfectly is this.
There have been some heard say that there is too much repetition
in advertising. Now, I might have belonged to that school of
thought myself bein one vho likes to have a matter explained
to him once and not fifteen times, but for a very early
experience I had before I'd gone into Parliament before waves
ha closed over me and I was taking a little preliminary
splash' It was at some kind of a political affair which might
have been on a Constitutional Referendum or something like that.
I went to the Prahran Town Hall. I had not really made a
political speech before, and I made a speech, I was accompanied
by an old uncle of mine who had been in Parliament.
It was at the Prahran Town Hall and in spite of the
inherent improbabilities in the Prahran Tovn Hall for me, this
was a good meeting. After I came out I was rather pleased
with myself and thought, " Now I've explained that matter to them
and it is crystal clear." I came out and I got into my uncle's
car and I said hopefully, " Well, Uncle, how did that go?" He
said, " It was terrible.
My face fell no doubt. Then he said " Look, as
an address to the High Court, it couldn't have been faulted.
It was clear, you didn't ever repeat yourself, you assumed that
your audience was a hih-powered audience which would understand
every word, every syllbale. As a High Court performance m
boy, it was admirable I don't doubt, But as an address to the
people it was hopeless. Now let me tell you this," he said.
You are a bit afraid of repeating yourself. Do understand
that in communicating with the people, persuading people
this is as true of your business as it is of mine in
communicating with the people it is essential that you leave
them at the end with a very clear notion of your central theme.
They must go away with that in their minds. They are not to
go away saying, ' e's a clever speaker'. That means nothing.
They are to go away saying, ' That was a good point he made."
If you are to do this then you must not just state
your main point once. You must approach it from the North, the
South, the E-. st and the West, always bringing yourself to a
conclusion in which is the centre of your argument, So, if
you are going to be good at this kind of thing you must four
imes approach the central proposition you want to establish,
not with of course the same words in a different way, but always
concluding with the thing rou want them to take away with them.
The more I think of that the more I realise that very very wise
remark of uncle is not entirely unrelated to the principles
of advertisin-and making an impact on the public mind. Although
you are the advertisers rather than the advertised, you are of
course profaundly interested in the success of the advertising
that goes on in your name.
Now I'm sorry to have inflicted on you the wandering
views of an amateur but in a sense, jou're all amateurs too,
because I'll lay ndds that when you aecide with your agents to
put on an advertising campaign of same kind, you are, on the
whole, happy when it comes out right.
I just want to say to all of you that I hope it will
always come out right. I'm delighted to be here to open this
conference.