A business
advertisement, as it appears in the newspapers, is such an extremely
trivial thing and so completely devoted to the egotistical desire for
profit that it seems undignified for the scientist to spend his time
on such nothings and to shoot sparrows with his laboratory
cannon-balls. But on the one side nothing can be unworthy of thorough
study from a strictly theoretical point of view. The dirtiest chemical
substance may become of greatest importance for chemistry, and the
ugliest insect for zooelogy. On the other side, if the practical point
of view of the applied sciences is taken, the importance of the
inquiry may stand in direct relation to the intensity of the human
demand which is to be satisfied by the new knowledge. Present-day
society is so organized that the economic advertisement surely serves
a need, and its intensity is expressed by the well-known fact that in
every year billions are paid for advertising. Measured by the amount
of expenditure, advertising has become one of the largest and
economically most important human industries. It is, then, not
astonishing that scientists consider it worth while to examine the
exact foundations of this industry, but it is surprising that this
industry could reach such an enormous development without being guided
by the spirit of scientific exactitude which appears a matter of
course in every other large business. As it is a function of science
to study the physics of incandescent lamps or gas motors so as to
bring the economically most satisfactory devices into the service of
the community, it cannot be less important from the standpoint of
national economics to study scientifically the efficiency of the
advertisements in order that the national means may in this industry,
too, secure the greatest possible effects.
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