Advertising as a Career

CAPE TIMES – 1928, July 19

Important Posts Held by women

Of the many fields for women’s work which have developed in recent years that of advertising offers the widest scope and makes the most picturesque appeal. It is work for which the woman’s mind has an advantage over the mentality of the male. Advertising authorities, pointing to America and Great Britain, where many women in the advertising field now earn from £500 to £2,500 a year, agree that unparalleled opportunities in this profession are waiting to be seized by women in this country. There is a league in New York called “The League of Advertising Women,” and both London and New York have their Women’s Advertising Clubs. There is probably no profession in which the percentage of women holding responsible positions is so high as it is in advertising. This is no doubt largely due to the fact that it is of comparatively modern growth and women have not had to overcome prejudices that are deep rooted in tradition to the extent they have in some other professions.

There are many women directors of advertising agencies, at least two of whom have been in the business for 30 years or more and have advanced by the weight of great ability form subordinate positions to administrative posts, and in one case, to the chairmanship of a great advertising organisation. The most notable example is Miss. J. R. Reynolds, F.I.P.A., who arrived in Wellington this week.

A considerable number of the important posts in the advertising departments of the British newspapers and periodicals are held by women, including the coveted one of advertisement manager to London “Punch,” who rose to power because she believed in advertising, started her career as a copywriter on the staff of a London advertising agency. A large advertising firm in London has four women on its copy-writing staff, and one of its three commercial studios is staffed entirely by women. One of Sydney’s largest department stores has placed its advertising in charge of a woman. The advertising department of the “Queensland Country Press” is represented in Sydney by Miss Foote.

Appeal to Women

A factor that has had a considerable influence in providing their openings for women is that the bulk of advertising directs its appeal to women. One of the speakers at a British convention luncheon, at which a woman was in the chair, and for which the details were arranged by women in advertising businesses, emphasized the fact that 90 percent of the buying – not trading – in the world is done by women, and 75 percent of the shops in Regent and Oxford Streets, London, are for women alone. She quoted figures from an Oxford Street store which showed that 75 000 women each day passed in and out of the doors, inspecting goods or making purchases. The psychological effects of advertising are admittedly a highly important branch of study, and therefore the instinctive desire to bring women, into the profession, is thoroughly sound. A woman’s mind. With its love of detail and its big imagination, can appeal to prospective women customers better than the average man’s. 

The three chief branches of advertising offering wide scope to the woman expert are: 

(1) Advertising Management: the organization for business concerns of the advertising systems by which they aim to sell their goods. 

(2) Advertising Agency: the preparation and placing of advertisements and the organization of selling-schemes for trade advertisers. 

(3) Advertisement Management or the Organisation of Newspaper and Magazine Advertising. The sale of space by canvassing is an important feature of this branch of work.

For Clever Women 

Advertising is undoubtedly a profession in which a clever woman can secure big prizes. But it must not be thought that these prizes are lucky windfalls. They are the result of rigorous training, patient endeavor, and grueling work. One starts early, finishes late and when emergencies arise, burns a lot of midnight oil. But withal it is a fascinating business – curiously enthralling. It needs skill of a high order to put the facts of an advertisement in a form that will capture the imagination, and sway the buying moods of tens of thousands of people. It is work that gives a gratifying feeling of power and, being important work, it rightly commands high salaries. – “The Dominion” (New Zealand).