Prime Minister Manley challenged advertisers to use different methods to attract their customers other than giveaways and free incentives. Mr Manley shared that people were too often caught up in getting things without putting in the work. For him, to encourage this sort of behaviour would destroy society.

Published Thursday, June 29,1972

PM: ‘Love’ is not licence

Need for discipline in the society stressed

CONCERN ABOUT THE NEED for discipline in society and about the “freeness mentality” was expressed by the Prime Minister, the Hon. Michael Manley, yesterday in a speech exploring the need for “a national spirit of self-reliance.”

"When I speak of love it does not mean licence,” the Prime Minister said, addressing the annual luncheon of the Advertising Media Association at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston.

Dealing broadly with advertising in society, Mr Manley questioned some of the techniques used in the industry in particular with their possible effect on attitudes of self-reliance by such things as giveaways and advocating getting something for nothing.

In this connection, he said the National Lottery had been abolished not because the Church wished it, but because his own view was that for a government to use gambling as an adjunct of economic development was to disqualify itself from any moral leadership in the area of the psychology of self-reliance.

Contradiction

At this point, the Prime Minister moved briefly from his central theme about advertising and spoke of the need for discipline in the society.

He said he proposed to deal with this subject in another speech shortly because there were some who believed that when he spoke of love, he meant licence.  They would have to learn otherwise, he said.

On the involvement of advertising with national goals, the Prime Minister said he saw a deep inherent contradiction between contemporary advertising and the national purpose.  The biggest attitudinal problem facing Jamaica stemmed from its history – the problem of the “freeness mentality.” And in that additional crisis, the advertisers knew better than anyone the role of the “hidden persuaders.”

He knew of a challenge to the industry to make its concepts and techniques “harmonious with the national aspirations of Jamaica.”

I invite you … to look at the question of how far you can examine the things destructive of the national spirit of self-reliance in Jamaica,” the Prime Minister said and emphasised that there was no substitute for hard work in building a nation.

In developing his theme earlier, Mr Manley said he anticipated a problem arising from the modern experience of the advertising process, where there was a “pursuit of product differentiation within a category of satisfaction.”

The problem involved the concept of social responsibility in a context where modern techniques sought to persuade rather than to inform.

The realisation came with the historical economic development that unfiltered competition was incapable of creating social justice. Products could not guarantee the ethics of advertising. The industry had to impose that upon itself, he said.

Mr Manley said it was odd that six years after the International Code of Ethics was adopted by the industry there was no record of a breach. This, he said, was astounding and opened up a credibility gap.

The question of imposing moral and ethical standards was a difficult one, particularly in the democratic system where care had to be taken not to invade areas of individual freedom.

The great problem facing democracy was how, within the system, people were led to understand the proper role of self-discipline that flowed from the awareness of social justice, Manley said.

In the pursuit of product differentiation, some kinds of advertising could do no harm. On the other hand, there were techniques revolving around giveaways and getting something for nothing he said.

He sought to know how far the industry was prepared to look at the question of certain techniques being destructive to the attitudes of self-reliance and hard work.

Mr Manley spoke after an introductory speech by Mr Lloyd DePass, who had been re-elected president of the Association.

Mr DePass spoke about common misunderstandings about advertising and cited its primary objective of serving the consumer better.

By creating demand, advertising stimulated the economy, he said, noting that advertising expenditure was approximately one per cent of the Gross National Product in 1961 and again in 1971.

Mr Bay Miles, vice-president of the Association, in moving the vote of thanks, spoke of some aspects of policy that the industry pursued and pledged the full support of the profession in the Government’s literacy campaign.

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