Wid's Filmdom (1920)

Advertising on the Screen ECENTLY there has been a tremendous lot of dis cussion about the use of advertising on the screen in industrials and the action of certain producers in placing advertising in feature productions. There have been some very flagrant cases of this abuse and in the case of one prominent producer-distributor, the use of national advertising in certain productions has been particularly offensive. There is some diversity of opinion throughout the country among exhibitors as to how advertising on the screen should be considered and I am willing to admit that it is really the problem of each exhibitor to decide for himself except that I want to agree with Harry Crandall, of Washington, when he says that this is a danger that must be considered very carefully because after all the public pay their money for entertainment and not to be exploited and forced to consider advertising which they do not want to consider. I will admit that intelligently prepared industrials which are really entertainment can be used legitimately providing the exhibitor knows exactly what he is getting and presents it without false impressions, but I am utterly and emphatically opposed to the producer who takes money from a national advertiser for putting advertising in a production and then tries to slip that over on the exhibitor and the public as entertainment without calling attention to the presence of the advertising matter. There have been some heated discussions of this problem in the past and generally there have been emphatic denials from producers that any money had been accepted from national advertisers for the use of advertising in their productions. Besides, statements have been made to me by representatives of national advertising concerns that their firms have paid for the right to get advertising into the productions of prominent concerns but those statements were verbal and were not made in such a manner as to make it possible to use them. I am presenting herewith, however, a the motion picture screens of the exhibitors of America. ILW Sunday, January 25, 1920 letter which has been sent out from Los Angeles, which should be a bomb shell in the film business because of — the brazen manner in which this concern attempts to register the fact that it has authority to make use of The letter reads as follows: BlankeCor New York. Atten: Advertising Manager Gentlemen :— We can offer you twenty-million circulation (more than all the magazines combined)—at the “Saturday Evening Post” rates:—as we have contracted with a few of the greatest producers and stars (Like Griffith, Fairbanks, and others of like magnitude) to insert your ad into their coming productions. Our agreement being confidential with the producers, we cannot give you their names until you are positively interested. , Therefore, we will ask you to kindly advise us by return mail if you wish to make any arrangement for the coming year, as it was a hard task for us to induce the producers and stars to accept and insert advertisements into their legitimate plays and we control but a limited number of productions, Respectfully yours, ‘CiNeMa—Ad—Inc., D. E. Calnay, Secy. I am quite sure that no prominent producer is going to dare to put advertising into his films from now on, and certainly Mr. Griffith and Mr. Fairbanks will be | very much perturbed that their names are being used in such literature as is being forwarded to concerns which do national advertising.