Advertising (1939)

Party News from the June 1939 issue of the Socialist Standard

During 1937 the Publicity Committee spent £5 on Press advertising; during 1938 the amount spent was £19. These sums are mere drops in the bucket compared with the vast sums spent on Press advertising by Capitalist firms. The advertising appropriation of a large firm may in fact be anything from £5,000 to £50,000. Space is expensive, and a single inch in the column of a national paper costs from £3 10s. to £5 in only one issue.

Press advertising is, however, one of the most efficient means of making contact with people who will become energetic and enthusiastic propagandists of the Socialist case. It is like a fine-tooth comb which can be drawn through the whole of the population, collecting those who are interested in fundamentals—those who are likely, therefore, to be supremely useful in Socialist propaganda.

To illustrate the results achieved with our present infinitesimal expenditure, let us give a short resume of our activities. Small advertisements have appeared in the national dailies, in Sunday Papers read by the politically interested, in reviews like Plebs and Controversy, while articles in the Socialist Standard on certain subjects have been advertised in periodicals which are read by people who are interested in those subjects. Such advertisements cost anything from 6s. to £3 10s. each.

The results have more than justified this advertising policy.

Enquiries have been received from all parts of the world, e.g., from France, Hungary, Norway, Roumania, Palestine, India, Japan, the East Indies and the West Indies, Canada, the United States, Mexico and South America. At home there is hardly a county in Great Britain from which we have not received an enquiry—from the Orkneys in the north to Cornwall in the south—from Carnarvon in the west to Norfolk in the east.

As a result of the correspondence which has ensued, many COMPLETE SETS of our pamphlets have been sent out, the regular readership of the Socialist Standard has been increased, much correspondence has been passed to the Editorial Committee to be dealt with in the columns of the Socialist Standard, and back volumes of the Socialist Standard have been sent out. New members of the Party have been made, including potential writers and speakers for the Party.

Comrades, this work must go on. Due to the exigencies of the forthcoming Parliamentary election, the General Party Fund is low, and so far a sum of only £15 has been allocated for 1939 advertising. But this amount can be supplemented by donations. Hence we make this pressing appeal to you.

Donations, which will be acknowledged in the Socialist Standard, should be addressed to the Publicity Committee. Postal orders and cheques should be crossed and made payable to the Socialist Party of Great Britain.

Remember, with £40 we can cover the world once a year. With £80 we could cover the world twice a year!

Blogger's Note:

Via the excellent Splits & Fusion website, I was actually able to find one of the aforementioned SPGB adverts. It appeared in the November 1937 issue of the ILP theoretical magazine, Controversy. Interesting to note that the advert appeared alongside an advert for the magazine, International Review. It's a shame that there's been little or no research about that particular magazine. Based out of New York, I believe it was largely written by European exiles, and if it's known at all today, it's because it first published the pamphlet, The State and the Socialist Revolution by Julius Martov.