The Importance of Scientific Method in Advertising

Abstract

FEW WORDS in the English language have drifted farther from their academic moorings than the word science. So indiscriminate has been its application to denote some indefinite and indefinable quality, some idea of super-excellence, some concept of exact fitness for a purpose, or some mysterious but beneficent gift to the world, that one may well paraphrase the old saying about liberty-Oh, Science, what crimes are committed in thy name ! It is greatly to be regretted that in committing such crimes, the advertising profession has not been entirely guiltless. One is constantly reading in advertising about cigarette companies which have developed scientific methods of toasting cigarettes, tooth pastes which preserve the teeth scientifically, scientific preparations which will make hair grow on bald heads. Yet those who have tried these socalled scientific products know from their own experiences that many of them are neither scientific nor effective. In short, the word by its continued and injudicious use has been perverted from its real meaning into a convenient selling term. It would.almost seem as though any product which has nothing better to recommend it, may use the word science on its label and thus secure an enviable popularity. To those, however, who are devoting their time to the disinterested study of modern problems, the word science has a meaning far more exacting and at the same time far more definite. No criticism is quite so devastating in the academic field as the one that a writer is unscientific. Let us recall just what means to the scientist. According to Sir Arthur Thompson, .the great English biologist, Science is verifiable, communicable, impersonal, unemotional knowledge. It implies an intellectual attitude or mood, and a certain method of attack. The chief requisite for the proper mood for scientific work is an unbiased point of view-an absolute disinterestedness in the generalizations which are to be evolved from the facts-an attitude of detachment from the problem itself. This together with a thorough-going intellectual honesty, and a background broad enough to allow the investigator to comprehend all the implications and interrelations involved in the problem, comprise the essential attitude for the scientific worker. It might be well to stop here to point out the difficulty of securing this type of scientific attitude in most business organizations. The very life of such organizations depends upon profits. Research men are often employed in advertising not so much to find facts and principles as to secure a sales argument which will convert a successful manufacturer into a remunerative client. The frequent requirement that research men must produce revenue for their firms is almost bound to prejudice their results. There is an axe to be ground, and too often the advertising executive understands so little about scientific method that he uses pressure to secure results which will be profitable regardless of their scientific accuracy. The fact that so-called research is often conducted primarily for the purpose of rationalizing a sales campaign is one of the great obstacles in the way of developing real scientific work in advertising. Some years ago an effort was made to find what pub-