Leaderette of the North China Daily News dated April 13, 1939 - "Obnoxious Advertising." Shanghai, April 13, 1939. Source: SMA (SMC), U1-4-3821 (0443)

Correspondance concerning local window display by certain Chinese pharmacies draws attention to an evil which needs urgent correction. The cases to which writers refers are not the only instances where really objectionable and offensive types of publicity have been used for the advertising amongst other things of medicines for the cure of veneral diseases. If some of the revolting pictures of suffering were being shown for the purpose of warning the ignorant against the evil of vice, something, but even then not much, might be said for them, but when they are used for the purpose of advancing the sale of medicaments which may or may not prove effective, when it is done solely for sordid profit, a stop should be put to it. There are not only in the main streets of Shanghai, but also in the side thoroughfares, pharmacists and what appear to be medical men, who indicate their partiular speciality by such offensive pictures or the display of anatomical specimen in alcohol which are equally as repulsive. In the not too distant past, complaints regarding certain cinema advertising brought about quick action on the part of the authorities. These present practices are not even more obnoxious. The pictures shown are hideous in presentation and can in the mind of the ordinary adult create nothing but a feeling of disgust. What their effect is upon the minds of the immature, is it difficult to estimate, but that they can do no possible food from a prophylactic sense seems certain. They may, by the suggestion of the certainty of cure, which it is said so many of these displays promise, actually contribute to the the spread of the social evil which has for so long given cause for grave anxiety. In any event the exhibition of such disgusting placards, posters, etc. has nothing whatever to commend it, and the sooner the authorities take steps to put an end to this distressing state of affairs the better. As a correspondent remarks today redress has been effected in the case of the shop in Bubbling Well Road, which suggests that action taken in other cases should be equally successful. 

Extract from the North China Daily News dated April 13, 1939 - "Obnoxious Displays - Need for General Action." Shanghai, April 13, 1939. Source: SMA (SMC), U1-4-3821 (0442).

To the Editor of the North China Daily News. Sir - In your issue of April 3, one of your correspondets rifhtfully demanded the removal of certain unpleasant advertising material that was being displayed in the show-windows of a pharmacy on Bubbling Well Road. The police authorities of the Settlement took immediate action and on the same afternon, when passing there, I found to my very great satisfaction, that the objectionable display has been removed.
I was therefore quite surprise to wee the identical display in the show-window of a Chinese pharmacy at the corner of Boulevard de Montigny and Avenue Edward VII, when passing here yesterday. 
This is only an isolated case of the liberty given to pharmacists and doctors to advertize their trade and profession respectively and a short walk along Yu Ya Ching Road where syphilitic heads and otherparts of the body, replicas of premature babies and other objectionabe material is being displayed, presumably to acquaint the populace with the specialty of the particular physician will be quite convincing. Have ou city fathers even wondered avout the effect which such obscene displays may have on the brain of a child or even an adolescent? Is is not possible on the part of the police of both the Settlement and the French Concession to oblige enterprising pharmacists and doctors to submit their proposed show-window displays for censorship? Surely this would not encroach on the liberty of free speech the press and what have you? After all, motion pictures are censored, why not obscene show-window displays?  

Memorandum by Public Health Department To Secretary - "Obnoxious Advertising."  Shanghai, April 14, 1939. Source: SMA (SMC), U1-4-3821 (0441).

To go adequately into all the issues related to this press cutting will involve the Public Health Department, with all the diffusion of responsibility and literary effusion of which that Department is capable. The matter is incidental to the problem of V.D. [Veneral Diseases] and quack medicines for its cure. I take it that you do not want to raise that difficult issue, in view of the past history of attempts to control medicines and the persons who dispense them. If the anatomical specimens are to be condemned on Public Health grounds, I feel that we can wait until Dr. Jordan raises that aspect of the matter. If the matter is one purely of obscene advertising, I feel that we need not trouble to enquire whether the Police are doing their duty.
I suggest that for the moment we do not pursue the matter, (especially in the light of the volume of other work passing through the office and the summer lethargy which is assailing me personnally). 

Leaderette of the North China Daily News dated April 18, 1939 - Obnoxious Advertising. Shanghai, April 18, 1939. Source: SMA (SMC), U1-4-3821 (0440). 

Reference has been made editorially and in the correspondence columns of this journal regarding obnoxious advertising in show-windows in various establishments in the Settlement. Formerly, some of the advertising hoardings contained some particulary disgusting examples of illustration and suggestiveness as part of campaigns to bring certain alleged specifies to the notice of the public, but firmness and a degree of censorship on the part of the authorities has resulted in a process of cleansing which has removed much of the offensive nature of these appeals. 
In the Chinese pharmacies the problem is much more extensive and difficult for there are so many of them, but particularly disgusting examples of window advertising have been brought to general notice by correspondents. Everybody is familiar with the graphic method of appeal adopted by Chinese pharmacists and merchants generally in advertising their wares, but in the cases quoted by correspondents the examples are revolting to the extreme. By drawing attention to these abuses correspondents are doing valuable public service but a far more direct appeal could be achieved by communicating with the Municipal Police. At all times, the Municipal Police are willing to receive such complaints of offence to public morals and are anxious to co-operate with the general public in putting an end to such practices. Naturally, the Police cannot be expected to act as censors for every shop-window in addition to their many duties - mutiplied indefinitely by new political conditions - but they will act promptly on any complaint forwarded to them by the public.