study what is called the "humour page," and he does
not miss a crumb of it.
Why do not publicity men exploit this habit?
They have already made a few experiments in this line,
but so horribledoubtless starting from the fixed
principle that humour in publicity, to be effective, must
be as vulgar as possible in order to be appreciated by
all.
Now there is nothing more stupid than to confuse
vulgarity with popularisation. (Paul Martial dixit.)
Humour in publicity, to be effective, ought to be equal
in quality to that which is provided editorially.
From this point of view the publicity film has already
made considerable advances on printed pictures and
slogans. It has, little by little, freed itself from its
original vulgarity, and its progress has resulted in a
real increase in effectiveness.
And yet, from every point of view, the attitude of the
reader is more favourable than that of the spectator.
In the cinema the publicity film comes in the interval,
in the midst of the noise of banging chairs and cracking
nuts, in the centre of a general distraction.
Originally it only attracted a slight interest; then,
thanks to its development and to the use of ingenious
stratagemsone never knows what surprise will
emerge from the bottom of the bag—it succeeded in
gaining attention and making itself noticed, rather like
the animated cartoons of early days. And now one can
not imagine an interval without publicity films. One
day it may well be that they will be incorporated in the
programme itself.
Why then does not humorous publicity take the same
place in the press that it takes in the cinema?
The majority of readers only give a divided attention to
The zitane Cigarette becomes a fishing rod, the funnel of a
steamer, the telescope of an astronomer, a sporting gun, or the
bolster of a bed.
simplicity an
d ingenuity thtfisherman who catches fish with the simple promise that they shall be fried in Lesieur Oil.
