Tomorrow's advertising today

Tomorrow's advertising will be different in makeup and perspective. Why? Because, suddenly, we're in wartime. This month's YesterAd supplies several examples of advertising from the 1940s, more than half a century ago. That wartime advertising mode was distinctly different from advertising of the Roaring 20s and the

hard-pressed 1930s. The kind of advertising we'll see in days ahead will be different yet again. Never have there been times quite like these. Never before has a war been fought with such ill-defined boundaries. Never before have the stakes been higher.

In todayand tomorrow's advertising, the margin for error has diminished to practically zero. Not only do we have to send the right message in our ads, we also have to see results. Theoretically, that was true in the recent past, but it was a truth we played with loosely because, much of the time, we could afford to miss the target. Profit margins were decent and sales amazed even our sales managers. No one checked very carefully the significance of advertising's role. Today, there is no place for that loose-as-a-goose attitude. Every advertising dollar counts because dollars aren't as numerous or as available as before. Buying habits are no longer habits. Accepted business needs are being given a second look. Do we really need those two-- color envelopes? Maybe we could switch to black and white? Should we rerun those product brochures or wait a while? ...