As in all countries where advertising has developed as an essential technique in the distribution of mass produced goods, in New Zealand it was regarded by most early practitioners merely as a vehicle for puffing their own wares and attacking rival products without much concern for truth or taste. These dubious practices have affected the prestige of advertisers and advertising even up to the present day, and the fact that most laymen remain ignorant of the great advances in standards, efficiency, and honesty must to a great extent be blamed on the failure of organised advertising either to publicise its impressive progress or to make available the data on which a more favourable estimation might be based. In the last few years some effort has been made by the Association of New Zealand Advertising Agencies to acquaint the public with the benefits of advertising, but their own operations are seldom discussed. This is in sharp contrast to the American scene where agencies and advertisers freely supply data on the amount of money being spent each year on particular products, the volume of sales that results, the salary scales of the people employed in the advertising industry, and so on. The inaccessibility of specific information concerning the New Zealand advertising scene makes discussion on anything but the mechanical organisation and the visible results of the industry extremely difficult. The great bulk of advertising in New Zealand is prepared either by advertising agencies or by the advertising departments of retail stores.