Although advertising has reached such an enormous development in the United States, it is still generally considered to be in an empirical condition. The methods and forms to be used in advertising campaigns to a great extent are left in the hands of advertising experts to determine the mediums to be used. By keeping a strict account, by means of "keys," of the number of inquiries received through each medium, it is possible to a large extent to arrive at a knowledge of their respective values as advertising mediums. In spite of this, however, there still remains a large element of chance. Attempts to reduce this element have been made on an elaborate scale by Professor Walter Dill Scott and others, who have analyzed advertising over a number of years in an elaborate manner, and have been able to arrive at an estimate of averages which have been of great value.
During the World War all the leading governments involved entered upon advertising on a large scale, first to secure enlistments in their armies and afterward to raise the large sums necessary for carrying on the war and for the relief work which accompanied it. While all agencies of advertising were employed in this work, the most notable and picturesque method was the employment of posters, many of them executed with great care by the most eminent artists in the various countries. Many of these were of great beauty and artistic merit.
The development of advertising has been accompanied by abuses. These usually take the form of disfiguring public places and landscapes with advertising signs, especially along the lines of railways. Societies have been organized to prevent this, with excellent results. Several railways have undertaken to rid the landscapes through which their lines pass of objectionable signs. Similar efforts have been made to limit the erection of billboards in cities to places where their presence would be most inoffensive.
Accompanying the conditions of the business world which followed the World War, advertising took on a great impetus in 1919 and 1920. This resulted not only from a desire on the part of business men to increase their revenue, but also from the fact that many firms found it more profitable to invest large sums of money in advertising than to pay them out in the form of taxation on their surplus profits. As a result of this, many magazines of large circulation acquired an enormous revenue through increased advertising. In many cases the space given to the advertising pages greatly exceeded those devoted to text matter, even in magazines devoted to general literature. There are many journals devoted to the technique of advertising and several of these have a very wide general circulation.
ADVOCATE, (1) Originally one whose aid was called in or invoked; one who helped in any business matter; (2) In law, at first, one who gave his legal aid in a case, without, however, pleading, this being the function of the patronus; (3) The advocatus fisci, who attended to the interests of the fiscus, or the emperor's privy purse.
In the old German empire, a person appointed by the emperor to do justice.
In the Mediæval Church, one appointed to defend the rights and revenues of a church or monastery. The word advocate, in the sense of a defender of the Church, was ultimately superseded by that of patron, but it still lingers in the term advowson.
In English law, originally one who pleaded a cause in a civil, but not in a criminal, court.
Now, in English and American law, one who pleads a cause in any court, civil or criminal. It is not, properly speaking, a technical word, but is used only in a popular sense, as synonymous with barrister or counsel.
In the army the judge-advocate is the officer through whom prosecutions before courts-martial are conducted. There is also a judge-advocate-general for the army at large.
In Scotch law an advocate is a member of the faculty of advocates, or Scottish bar.
ÆDILE, in ancient Rome magistrates who had charge of public and private buildings, of aqueducts, roads, sewers, weights, measures, the national worship, and, specially, when there were no censors, public morality. There were two leading divisions of ædiles—cereales and curule. Their insignia of office were like those of the old kings—the toga prætexta (a purple robe), and the sella curulis, or curule chair, ornamented with ivory.
ÆDUI (īd´wē or ed-ū´ē), one of the most powerful tribes in Gaul at the time of Cæsar's arrival (58 B. C). They formed an alliance with Cæsar, who freed them from the yoke of Ariovistus, but they joined the rest of the Gauls under Vercingetorix in the great and final struggle for independence. After his victory, Cæsar treated them leniently for the sake of their old alliance. Their principal town was Bibracte.
ÆGEAN ISLANDS. See ARCHIPELAGO.
