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Great are the uses of advertisement! And they certainly are, both to the producer and the consumer. Of course, there is a great deal of truth in the saying that good quality and honest workmanship are the best advertisement. Of course, people know that the manufacturers would have done better if they had used the money for advertising in making better products to sell. But in these days of far extended trade, there is no doubt that advertisement is necessary to make the existence of even first-class goods known. And even goods that are already well-known must still be advertised. Some manufacturers are aware of the value of it, for, when they try to save money by stopping their advertisements, their sales go down at once. In this age of cut-throat competition, it is the man who shouts the loudest that attracts attention. And the consumers would not know the existence of many good things, if they are not advertised. So even well-established businesses have to spend thousands and thousands a year in advertising, or they will not sell their goods.

It is really advertisements that make newspapers possible. Great journals draw the greatest part of their profit from advertisements; and many smaller papers could not appear at all, but for the income they derive from this source.

Advertisement has now become an art; and there are businesses entirely devoted to supplying firms with striking advertisements.

But advertising has its abuses. Many advertisements are meant to deceive, and do for a time deceive the public, by puffing worthless goods, or grossly exaggerating the quality of inferior articles. There is only one consolation in this connection that a lying advertisement cannot sell worthless stuff for long, for the people who buy it will not buy it a second time. As an old saying says, "You can take in all people part of time, and you can take in some people all the time, but you cannot take in all the people all the time."

Short Answer Questions

1. The writer suggests that success in business partially depends on ____.
2. How do some small newspapers survive?
3. Why is advertisement indispensable?
4. How does a lying advertisement deceive people?
5. False advertisements won't prevail in that ____.

(Keys.)