In various cities buttons are distributed bearing such inscriptions as “Clean Up and Paint Up. I Will, Will You?” and “Scoot Home and Scrub.” Slogans are usually selected after competition for a prize by the school children.
Among the most effective posters used are window signs to call rubbish carts, and cards to be placed in the windows of homes. One house poster announced “We are Assisting in the Clean-Up and Paint-Up Campaign. Are You?” Posters have also been used in street cars, and on wagons and motor trucks. Fire warning cards have been sent by some cities to cigar stores, fireproof material manufacturers, and gas companies.
Rochester, New York, was one of the first cities to have fire warnings printed on caps for milk bottles. Others have used the backs of transfer tickets issued by street railway companies. One of the most effective fire warnings read: “See that your good cigar or cigarette does not cause a bad fire.” Philadelphia distributed blotters among the school children. In Toledo the school children, dressed as little White Wings, carried banners bearing the inscription “B-R-I-G-H-T-E-N U-P.” The bill posting companies, in some instances, donate space for the use of large posters. Street cars and station platforms are also utilized in an effort to attract the attention of citizens to do their duty cleaning their premises. The delivery forces of department stores and milk companies are pressed into service, each wagon being supplied with pamphlets and cards to be left with each package or bottle of milk.
Motion pictures and lantern slides showing the ravages of the fly, and actual conditions existing from dirt are an important factor in bringing the necessity for cleanliness before citizens and school children. By way of stimulating effort in the school children of Kewanee, Illinois, motion pictures were shown depicting the success of children in beautifying their school grounds and gardens in other cities. The members of the New York Street Cleaning Department gave illustrated lectures during the Clean-Up Campaigns. On the screens of 205 motion picture theaters in Philadelphia were shown nightly for four weeks attractively arranged slides telling the audience what to do and how to do it. The “Before” and “After” clean-up pictures proved very popular and instructive. Because of the great popularity of motion pictures this form of advertising is especially effective. The general secretary of the campaign in Cincinnati had prepared a set of lantern slides from photographs one year and these were used to illustrate addresses given the next year.
In all large cities there is much private advertising during these campaigns. In some, the regular advertising pages of the newspapers for weeks have individual advertisements of department stores, calling attention to the reduced prices of articles used for cleaning purposes. The more enterprising managers try to outrival each other in the amount of space covered.
Rochester, New York, one of the pioneer cities in the organization of the clean-up movement, arranged its publicity for one of its recent campaigns thus:
The cooperation of the daily press.
The exhibition of slides in motion picture theaters.
Sending letters to all lodges and orders asking for cooperation.
Asking the light companies to print fire warnings on the backs of their bills, and the railway companies to do the same on their transfers. The light companies also displayed similar information on their electric signs.