6. Publicity

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6. PUBLICITY

Conscious memory of publicity is a poor gauge of the effect it has produced. But the comparison of memory for different media is of some value. For this purpose, four Questions were asked:-

(1) Were there times when you made a special effort to collect salvage; if so, can you remember what made you do this?

(2) Do you think there should be a special drive for salvage in your district? If there has been one recently, did you support it?

(3) Have you been particularly impressed by any form of salvage publicity - what was it?

(4) Have you heard about the Government order making it illegal to destroy, abandon or mix with refuse, waste rubber, waste paper rags?

To avoid unpleasantness, Question 4 about the Government order was only put to housewives with whom the interviewer had established a more intimate, friendly contact.

Table 27

Were there times when you made a special effort to collect salvage?

	%
Yes	46
No	39
N.A.	15
SAMPLE	3073

Table 28

What made you do so?

	%
General national appeal	21
Local salvage drive	32
School children appeal	10
Other people’s example	2
Spring cleaning, etc.	8
Can’t answer	25
All who made a special effort	1879

If all the local influences are taken together, their effect is mentioned twice as frequently as that of national appeals. About a quarter of those who made a special effort could not remember what made them do so.

Table 29

Do you think there should be a special salvage drive in your district?

	%
Yes	33
No	34
There was one recently	10
Has no opinion	24
SAMPLE	3073

Opinions are evenly divided between those who would like a special drive and those who would not.

In this connection, it is of interest that among the people who had complaints or made suggestions, 27 (or 3%) wanted more special drives, but none said that there were too many drives.

Table 30

(If there was a special drive in your town), did you support it?

	%
Yes	85
No	12
N.A.	3
All who had a salvage drive recently	307

The overwhelming majority of women said that they had supported the special drive; to what extent, it is impossible for us to say.

Table 31

Have you been particularly impressed by any form of salvage publicity?

	%
Yes	48
No	39
N.A.	13
SAMPLE	3073

Table 32

(If yes), bv what ?

	%
Wireless	36
Posters	12
Press	12
Films	11
Loudspeaker vans	5
Local drive generally	4
Pamphlets, leaflets	4
Personal appeals, including schoolchildren	5
Exhibitions	2
N.A.	21
All who have been impressed	1877

The greatest number of women were impressed by wireless publicity; next, posters, the press, and films were mentioned by about equal numbers.

If the results of Table 32 are compared with those of Table 28, it will be seen that the publicity which was best remembered was not necessarily the most effective in getting people to salvage. Many more people who made a special effort were stimulated by a local appeal than were stimulated by national publicity. On the other hand, many more were impressed by national publicity and remembered it than was the case with local publicity.

Have you heard about the Government order making it illegal to destroy, abandon or mix with refuse, waste rubber, waste paper, rags ?

With 1162 housewives out of the 3073 interviewed, the investigator made an intimate enough contact to ask the question about the Government order.

Table 33

Have you heard about the Government order .

	%
Yes	85
No	15
Number asked	1162

The vast majority of those housewives asked said they knew about the order.

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