“I also enjoy the films in which there is a story. One such film, I remember, told of a poor family who took in washing. Disease abounded, and the folks who had their laundry done learned their lesson. Then the sanitary methods of the steam laundry were contrasted. It impressed me very much.
“The comic films are frequently laughable, but I remember being offended once at seeing a man like somebody’s beer so much that he drank it until he was dead drunk. I noticed that I was not the only spectator to leave the hall. I like, at all times, my photoplay fare to be in good taste.
“At some of the movie theaters I attend they make a practice of running a number of slides after the reels. They relate to neighboring stores, but are so dry and shown for so many weeks without being changed that I always skip them.”
“Would you prefer,” I chimed in, “that the advertising film portion be abolished?”
“I would not so long as the ordinary pictures did not suffer in quality and quantity. A show I regularly visit out in New Jersey always runs the ad. films after the program has finished. As the pictures are invariably good ones, I always stay to see them through, and most others in the audience seem to do likewise. And another thing, the subjects are frequently changed, for naturally one grows tired of seeing the same things over and over again.”
“Have you,” I broached, “any suggestions for improvements?”
“Sure; I would like to see some of my favorite photoplayers take the leading parts in the ad. stories. It would be just crazy to watch Mary Fuller and Francis X. Bushman as a pair of newly weds who try to overcome housekeeping difficulties with various modern articles to be bought at stores.
“I also think that there is considerable room for improving the film plots. They should be as good as the ordinary photoplays. What they seem to lack is strength. There is seldom any of the strong, exciting situations which I am accustomed to see, and the punch is often conspicuous by its absence at the end.”
III.
THE DOLLARS AND CENTS OF ADVERTISING BY MOTION PICTURES
So far as I am aware, the cost aspects of advertising by motion pictures have not been dealt with in print before. This may explain why so many advertisers, national or otherwise, have neglected to avail themselves of the many opportunities offered by the new publicity medium. As in all things, the cost is the deciding point, and although the average advertiser will not quibble over a few dollars where there is the prospect of increased business, he, nevertheless, likes to know beforehand just what the campaign is going to cost.