Report on the first meeting of the Advertising Association of China (Copy of Minutes). Shanghai, January 24, 1924. Source: SMA (SMC), U1-14-3267 (1234-1238).
The Advertising Association of China. A meeting of the representatives of several Advertising Agencies was held at the Union Club on January 15th (1924). The Agencies represented were the following: The China Publicity Company (Commercial Press), The Morning Society, Carl Crow, Inc., The Oriental Advertising Agency, The North China Advertising Company, Limited, W. Harvey's Advertising Agency.
Addressing the meeting, the Manager, Mr. N.N. Leashin " said: - "Advertising as a business and as a profession in China is far below standards in comparison with the activities of advertising men and advertising establishments in western countries and deserves much improvement. The business is growing rapidly, but business ethics and the honour of the profession are more often than not treated in a most deplorable manner. This is a fact, and those who could perhaps want to deny it, should consider carefully before so doing.
There are many reasons why the standard of the advertising profesion and the advertising business is comparatively low and why our work is being conducted under most difficult conditions, with but the slightest protection, and without assurance that the next day will not bring to us the same unnecessary and most unpleasant and endless worries, the dealings with which somestimes take half of our time. This half of our time could also be used for constructive work if we will come together and try to better the general conditions in which we are working.
The conditions are bad, there is no doubt about it. You know them all, but just to remind you once more, I will point out the main evils against which we are constantly struggling, each one of us separately.
The first of them is -- "sniping". One arm sends out a billposting crew and covers every available wall of fence in Shanghai and in other towns, notwithstanding the fact that some of the spaces and sometimes the most valuable ones, do not belong to them and are paid for by others. The average life of a poster on a good sunny day is about 30 minutes one hour, as along comes the next billposting crew belonging to an another company, and covers the posters pasted by the first people.
They do it thorouglhy, if the companies are competing. Is this business- like ? Is this advertising ? Does it please anybody? Does it beautify the towns? Does it push the trade?
Billposting of this kind has been the only one conducted in China for quite a number of years. It is decreasing now, but not because someone has issued regulations or placed restrictions, but simply because some advertisers themselves have come to realize that it is a disgraceful waste of good money. Still, it is going on.
There is another kind of sniping, a more modern one. An agency, or some individual firm, having decided to advertise some commodity, order a number of painted signs to be made by some contractor, and then put them up wherever there is an available space. In most cases, the space belongs to someone else. Ignorant of the existing Municipal regulations, the party often erects them in a manner that causes more harm to others than good to themselves. It must be said that this is done generally with boards of smaller sizes. I will give you several instances.
(p.2/3) Sometimes ago, our firm was requested to shift some small boards from an excellent location belonging to us and fully paid for in advance, owing to the fact that the boards were projecting some inches over the roadway. It was immediately done and the clients were notified to this effect. This caused some trouble, as the space was a valuable one. But we were in the wrong and had to face it.
Some days after we were much surprised to see a board belonging to someone else, erected on the space which still belonged to us and exactly in the position which cause the authorities to order the removal of our bulletins. Later in the day, a pleasant telephone conversation with one of our clients: "Why did you tell me you cannot have my advertisement there and now I see…………….." and so on for 10 minutes.
Another instance. One agency and one individual firm exercising the practice of leaving the choosing of spaces to a crew of coolies headed by a trained space-getter, has erected small boards, advertising competitive food on another location of ours. Can we leave the boards there? They have not paid, they have not asked our permission, they simply placed the boards.
Where shall we be and what would outdoor advertising look like if we all did this sort of thing. A new interpretation of the "Eye for eye"… : "If he sticks a board on to your location, go and stick your board on his!" - "He covers your poster, go and cover his!". Well, Gentlemen, this is all sniping, this is not business and is too far from any ethics to be allowed.
Another evil: The raising of rents for advertising locations. Let us say, for instance, that the agency has purchased the space at some good corner, paid say $600 for it, and placed the advertisements. This serves immediately as a signal for some individual advertiser or an agency to go to the landlord and say: - "When you contract with agency express, I want to take this space, I can pay $700 for it."
The landlord does not care, whether A or B or someone else pays him the money as long as the amount is as high as possible, and therefore, when C comes and joggers $800, the landlord begins to think that his space is worth at least $1000. Sure enough, at the end of the contract period, he says to A that he cannot lease the space for less than $1000, and A pays. He has to pay. B, C and all the others did not get the space, but they harmed the business of A considerably. In his turn A had to raise his charges to the clients and the advertisers suffered as well. Who benefited? The landlords. Now imagine, what would happen, if A, B, C, D and all the others would try to obtain each others spaces. the rents would increase continually with the result that the vines of all of them would be seriously injured and their clients would either have to deprive themselves of a valuable medium to push their trade, or the rates they would have to pay would be out of all proportions.
This is exactly what is going on in Shanghai right at present. I would tell you of hundreds of instances and give you the names, but it’s hardly necessary - you know well that it is so. This must be stopped.
Another evil - the location brokers. A man, having a few dollars in pocket, pays "bargain money" for a good space and then sells it to an agency or to an individual firm. Sometimes they charge as much as double what they pay, and have they have no capital, they pay only when they obtain the money from the party to which they sold the location. Often they make more money than the agency, and it takes them only a couple of hours a year of "work". This must be done away with, but must get together to do it.
There are many more evils, known to all of us, but there is one to which I would direct your special attention. Somebody having a small capital, or being sure of some kind of support, gets in touch with newspapers, or buys advertising space, and knowing little about advertising, but eager to make money, establishes himself as an "Advertising agency".
Somehow or other, he obtains orders and all goes well until he, either owing to abnormal appetites or owing to the lack of knowledge of the science and art of advertising, makes a mess of the business instructions to him of some prominent advertisers.
(p.3/3)
He loses the business, sure enough, but more often than not, the effect of all this is much more serious than it appears to be. He leads the client to either of the following conclusions: -
- "I failed because I advertised, better not to advertise at all, or advertise in a different manner."
- "I failed because I did business with an Advertising Agency. Never more. They are all rotters."
As a consequence, we all suffer although we did nothing wrong.
You all well know of a most striking instance, when one of the largest advertisers in China, for some time refused to do business with any Advertising Agency because he was badly hurt by one of them. The business of this one "Agency" was conducted in a most repulsive unethical manner. We all know of it, we all suffered, but what could we do?
Up to now, I have spoken to our common ennemies. You all agree, I am certain, that the only way to settle all these troubles, is by getting together and forming an Association, which would establish regulations and place restrictions and serve as a protection both to our business and to the interests of our clients. We should give the chance to join the Association to all the Advertising companies and regard everybody as clean and pure as if they had not yet been engaged in the business in China. Everybody should enter the Association with a clean sheet.
But our regulations will be strict and we shall have the powers to make the offenders obey these regulations.
I am convinced that the authorities and the advertisers will be the first to support us. The field is large and besides being a means of protection, the Association could help us immensely in in the development of legitimate, up-to-date advertising in China.
Take, for instance, the Newspapers. Do we know the circulations, on which they are supposed to base their rates? Does there exist an Audit Bureau of Circulations in China? True enough, there are not many newspapers in China worth while talking about, but about 500 papers carry advertisements.
There is no reason why our clients should not know exactly what they are paying for, and no reason why they should deal with figures which are true to, sometimes, within 10,000. Don’t you think that in our future effort to establish this A.B.C., we should be certain of the full-hearted support of all advertisers?
As a Representative body, our word would carry weight, because first of all, it will be the word of all our clients, whose interests, in fact, each one of us represents to the same extent as his own interests. An agency cannot live if its interests do not go hand in hand with the interests of the clientele.
There are innumerable matters which could be settled by the Association as a Representative body, to our mutual benefit. Take, for instance, the taxation on outdoor advertising in different cities. As an example - take Tientsin’s Chinese city. Notwithstanding the fact that we could obtain any amount of orders to place advertisements there, up to now we could do nothing against the exorbitant rates which the Authorities want us to pay.
It is up to you, gentlemen, to decide whether the formation of the Association is of vital importance to us or not."
The meeting unanimously decided to form an Association which was called "The Association of Advertising Agencies of China". The next meetings will take place shortly, to which all the other advertising Agencies who for some reason or other were not represented, will be invited. At the next meeting, which again shall take place at the Union Club, the following questions of vital importance shall be discussed:
- By Laws, Regulations fees, the plan for future work, etc.
There will be no executive committee as all the questions will be decided by the representatives of firms forming and joining the Association, in corpore.
Vice-President of the Advertising Association of China to Commissioner of Public Works. Shanghai, January 24, 1924. Source: SMA (SMC), U1-14-3267 (1233).
I take the pleasure in sending you herewith the report on the first meeting of the Association which, we hope, will interest you.
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