Archive Report
Archive Report
Advertising in a National Emergency
Prospect of Proposals to Curtail Advertising
Development of shortages of civilian goods, as the rearmament program takes an increasing share of the total national output, may generate demands for government action to discourage large advertising outlays by manufacturers and merchants. The staff of the congressional Joint Committee on the Economic Report suggested six months ago that “From a general economic point of view, one of the most desirable excise taxes that could be levied would be a tax on advertising, especially on that urging consumers to buy consumer goods.”1 That suggestion fell on deaf ears at the time, but proposals to curtail advertising may well be heard again when scarcities of advertised civilian products appear in the wake of expanded military ...