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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 4, Issue 2 (June 1, 1929.)

The Ethics of Publicity

The Ethics of Publicity.

Publicity was an education for the public in the development of wants. The aim and object of every human being was to develop towards improvement in some direction, and this could only occur as wants developed. It was admitted that publicity could sometimes produce a temporary success with a worthless article, but this took no account of moral obligations, and so was an outrage on the community. The moral difference between this and theft was negligible. The whole thing came back to the question of the conscience of the individual, and supplied a further reason why the status of publicity should be raised.

“Speaking to you as advertising experts, I say definitely that as the standard of your profession is raised by yourselves, so will you obtain a higher standard of appreciation and rank in the community.

“I feel that publicity, or advertising, goes further than merely informing people about what you have to sell. If you want to ‘get back’ on the economists you must do so by making the people interested in wants, for it must be recognised that the developement of wants tending to the benefit of the race is a useful economic function. True publicity is necessarily educational in character.

“The purpose of publicity,” continued Mr. Sterling, “was to create for the reader or hearer a realisation of something that he needed and would be better for—to bring to people the knowledge of something worth while.”