XI. THE PENETRATION OF SALVAGE CAMPAIGNS

Previous sections have shown how important a role advertising plays in making the public “salvage conscious”, and what immediate effect it has on the actual output.

In one question, informants were directly asked whether they could remember being influenced by advertising in their attitude to salvage. This question referred only to paper, metal and food. (It was impossible to ask for more than three sorts, as informants became confused beyond this).

The number of people who could not remember any effect of propaganda varied with the salvage items. Only a quarter could not remember the effect of any paper campaign, but nearly half of the housewives said that they could not remember any effect of a food waste campaign.

Those who became conscious of an appeal, stated that it was sometimes more than one type of appeal which made them salvage conscious.

The totals in the following table are not of persons, but of the total answers given, one person sometimes giving more than one answer.

(Although “Distributing containers” is not really a method of advertising, it has, besides its functional value, a certain propaganda value).

Wireless was the most effective medium for all three sorts, and was more effective than newspaper advertising. Our material does not allow an exact analysis of the reason for this difference, but one factor does emerge:- wireless appeals, although less numerous than newspaper appeals, were always personal approaches to the individual housewife, whereas newspaper appeals were impersonal.

The importance of personal appeals is also shown in the table below, in which are analysed in detail the answers of all who said that they were influenced by local appeals.

The Influence of Local Campaigns

If “personal appeals” (including official ones and those of voluntary workers), “children’s appeals” and “loudspeaker vans” (which also used a personal approach) are taken together, it will be seen that 76.2% of the effectiveness of local campaigns in the case of paper was due to personal appeals; similarly 71.3% for metal and 63.4% for food.

In a previous report on the effectiveness with which National Wheatmeal Bread had been brought to the notice of housewives (W.S.S. New Series 7 and 8) it was shown that, for the lower income groups, personal appeal was more effective than other forms of advertising. These conclusions appear also to apply to salvage. It might be that a more personal direct appeal in all salvage campaigns would improve results.

The remembered conscious influence of M.O.I. films was not high (Paper 2.3%, Food 1.3%, and Metal 1.8%). In interpreting the results it must be kept in mind that informants, will be influenced to some extent by what is foremost in the mind, and wireless and newspapers are daily features of his life, whereas an M.O.I. film might have been seen only once some weeks previously.

One other question was asked to check up on the effects of propaganda campaigns. The informants were asked if they knew what the different salvage items were used for. The results are given in the table below. To some extent this reflects the number of appeals made for the different items, though the results are also influenced by the level of general knowledge. It is easier to know to what use food waste or metal are put than to know which purpose rags and bones serve.

The answers were classified in three groups - correct answer, incorrect answer, and don’t know:-

The extent to which the question was answered correctly reflects the level of housewives’ salvage education. It will be seen for rubber and rags to be low. This is also reflected in sections dealing with the extent to which commodities are collected.