Macy's v. Movies
Advertisements for R. H. Macy & Co., Manhattan department store, are bright and saucy, written to make Macy's underselling policy seem chic as well as thrifty. They have influenced other department store advertising, made Macy's publicity director and vice president, Kenneth Collins, who seven years ago taught freshman English at the University of Idaho, the highest paid advertising director in the U. S. Six weeks ago, in an article for Motion Picture Herald, Kenneth Collins told Editor Jerry Ramsaye what he thought about advertisements for Cinema. He said they were inaccurate, exaggerated, nonspecific, overenthusiastic, ineffective.
Cinema advertising executives were moved to sharp replies. S. Charles Ein-feld, advertising and publicity director of Warner Bros., pointed out that Macy's methods were impractical for the cinema, which sells one thing at a time, cannot advertise cut-rates. Hal Home, advertising and publicity director of United Artists, said the rise of Macy's could be entitled "From Gags to Riches," pointed out that advertisement for pictures must "get all selling points over before the picture opens," that films cannot, like stores, build up goodwill. Last week the controversy continued when Kenneth Collins addressed a luncheon of the Associated Motion Picture Advertisers, Inc. He repeated:
"The grossest sort of exaggeration finds its way into motion-picture advertising. It is filled with such lines as, 'you will never forget this picture as long as you live' and 'this is New York's greatest thrill.' Such promises not only weaken the force of your advertising but in addition are the grossest and most flagrant sort of lies.
"One gets the conviction from reading film advertisements that few of the film men who wrote them actually saw the pictures. If they did, they are the worst writers I ever saw. It is bad advertising practice to write about something you know nothing about."
To this blast. "Phil M. Daly" (Jack Harrower), Film Daily colyumist, responded by accusing Macy advertisements of giving the public an erroneous impression that "the department store workers are just One Big Happy Family." He reminded Mr. Collins that the Better Business Bureau of New York has condemned advertisements which claim that a store is underselling competitors (TIME, Oct. 12). The B. B. B. in a letter which Macy's competitors reprinted in advertisements, called such methods ". . . an open attack on the integrity of advertising. . . unsound business. . . inimical to the public interest . . . ruthless and predatory."
The New Pictures
Taxi (Warner). If you have seen The Public Enemy, Smart Money or Blonde Crazy, you have some idea what to expect of Taxi. Authors Kubec Glasmon and John Bright are camera-minded writers and their stories, which usually deal in an offhand way with violent happenings, have speed, vigor and assurance. Fortunately for all concerned, James Cagney attracted Hollywood's attention at about the same time as Authors Bright and Glasmon. When he appears in one of their inventions the result is often brilliantly successful.