Music Trade Review

THE
VOL. LXXVII. No. 21 P1lblished Every Sat1lrday. Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 383 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. Nov. 24, 1923
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Questionable Advertising Once More Appears
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s~ctions of the country "vhat may be termed a mild epi­
demic of questionable advertising designed to increase the sales of pianos particularly. Those who are
interested in the improvement of the trade publicity as it IS presented to the public are somewhat at a loss
to determine the cause of this backsliding on the part of concerns that, under ordinary circumstances, may
be said to present most creditable advertising copy.
In Milwa ukee the Better Business Bureau of the local advertising clubs has found it necessary to warn
certain piano dealers of the fact that some of their recent advertisements have had a tendency to pass over the
boundary between good copy and bad. In other sections advertisements have appeared recently which have
created disputes between local dealers and even come to the attention of the Better Business Bureau of the
~Iusic Industries Chamber of Commerce.
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The copy complained of does not simply tend to create false ideas in the public mind regarding piano
values, through low prices and long terms, but sometimes neglects to state plainly that the "bargains" offered
are used pianos and that the instruments of famous makes featured represent traded-in stock and are not
handled regularly by the house , doing the advertising.
There a re those in the trade who have given the situation some consideration and who, as a result, are
inclined to blame this backslide in advertising to a slight falling off in buying activity which occurred in some
sections of the country last month and in other sections this month, though an improvement has already been
noted in most sections. The tendency towards sensational copy is excused on the premise that dealers have
become somewhat panicky in certain instances and, instead of waiting to see what would develop in two or three
weeks, reverted immediately to the type of publicity formerly utilized as a last desperate resort when produc­
tion was far beyond demand instead, as is now the case, of being barely level with or slightly under it in the
country's factories.
Perhaps an answer may be found in the rather cynical statement of a well-known piano man who, in dis­
cussing the characteristics of certain types of retailers and the efforts made to induce them to adopt higher
standards, told the story of a little girl who felt sorry for the pigs in a filthy sty and secured her father's per­
mission to take one of them and raise it as a pet. She washed the animal carefully, beribboned and perfumed
him, and kept him about the house for several days. Finally, the pig found the door open one day and imme­
diately ran out and threw himself contentedly into the slime of the sty. In other words, the pig refused to be
divorced for any length of time from his instinctive habits and environment. According to the piano man who
tells the story some piano merchants are in the same category as the pig so far as their trade practices are
concerned.
There has been a tendency for several years past to improve piano advertising, ' and the results are
manifest to any f air-minded member of the trade who has given the matter consideration. The national ad­
vertising of piano houses stands on an even basis at least with the adve~tising of other lines of industry, and so
does much of the general newspaper advertising of the concerns which have taken up the question of publicity
in a comprehensive manner.
The unfortunate thing is that all this good and expensive pUblicity in the magazines and newspapers loses
much of its effectiveness for the advertiser and the trade in general as a result of the tendency of some few
recalcitrants to revert to their true form in the matter of questionable advertising as soon as the prospective
customers stop crowding into the stores. Moral suasion is not effective in checking the evil except in those
cases where the merchant means well but the man who is responsible for the advertising takes a chance. Where
the offenses are flagrant, the better element of the trade will do well to bring the advertising to the attention
of the proper authorities, for there are methods, effective as they are forceful, of curbing such advertising.
UST now there seems to be developing in various
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