“…That if all Printers were determin’d not to print any thing till they were sure it would offend no body, there would be very little printed.
I consider the Variety of Humours among Men, and despair of pleasing every Body; yet I shall not therefore leave off Printing. I shall continue my Business. I shall not burn my Press and melt my Letters.”
Benjamin Franklin, Apology for Printers, Philadelphia Gazette (June 3-10, 1731)
In the fall of 1729, 23-year-old Benjamin Franklin became part owner of a newspaper named Philadelphia Gazette, setting up standards by filling its columns with lively news, editorials and advertising that mostly pleaded for contributions among his friends.
“The Apology for Printers” stemmed from an outrage he got because of an advertisement that came from the Gazette. It was about a ship open to sail for Barbados at a time agreed on by the freighters and passengers with the captain. It was a common advertisement, except for the added: “No Sea Hen or Black Gowns” will be admitted on any terms.
The ad was done but created such furor and collective offense, that there was malice against religion or clergy. Franklin was shunned although he admitted he has never seen or heard the word “Sea Hen” before in his entire life, nor even asked for its meaning. But he admitted that he knew that “Black Gowns” signified theclergy of the House of England.
The clergy were his customers and some very good friends who were convinced he printed the ad for malice, and small profit, which had intensely saddened him as a printer. He died in 1790 ripe in years and laden with honors. The line of succession from Franklin’s famous newspaper became both an inspiration and a useful promotional asset for the Saturday Evening Post, which was Americas oldest magazine, whose great period of growth and influence has all been within a modern world.
The Post started with five tiny advertisements one from a Philadelphia wigmaker, one from the Reading Railways giving its suburban train schedule, two from patent medicine and one for Columbian bicycles. This was in 1897.
But the advertising world had hence seen a drastic facelifting with the infusion of new ideas administered by every publisher along the way. Thus, their enterprise got results in the field of ads.
At present, ome sectors are convinced and see advertising as the single contribution to human welfare, and thus be given the courtesy and importance it deserves. Personally, I think it has made us smell good, look good, feel good and live good, like a citizen should. What’s more, today’s advertising does not concern itself only with material values. We only have to read about church campaigns in uplifting lines that could interest more people in religion.
Today, publishers are more aware of the power advertisers have. Not just about the power to move goods, not about that notion they exercised about the economy, but the power to affect deeply. The nature, attitudes and aspirations of the consumers on the material level, the human, spiritual or mind levels, and conditioning us to buy certain things. Advertisers also have the power to tell us also how to live, think and aspire in certain ways. Their delicate dance commences slowly with the mandate that each hope to achieve for the public. One is to teach values of more than their products, while the other continues to sell perversion of values.
Publishers have to put up, suffer tedious and endless repetition of so many of their commercials, They want the advertiser to cast the scales off their eyes and sell honestly to their sponsors, to move the product to benefit the health, education and welfare of an entire nation. The fandango continues moving in circles, on how to meet on a common ground for each others mutual concerns. Both have the power and obligation to do so.
But they can’t do it, until they take a long, hard fresh look at us the consumers, so we could also recognize ourselves as we really are.
***
E-mail Mylah at [email protected]