Dark Market

Of a large group of Negro housewives canvassed in Birmingham, 74% had never heard of Fels-Naphtha soap. Half of those interviewed in Nashville never heard of Gold Medal flour; half in Atlanta knew nothing about Carter's underwear. Phoenix hosiery was unknown to 61% in Richmond.

With such statistics W. B. Ziff Co. of Chicago last week told national advertisers that they could not hope to cover the Negro market by blanketing the white Press. The figures were embodied in an elaborate booklet called The Negro Market issued by Ziff Co. (white), advertising representatives for the Negro Press.

The booklet painstakingly sketches typical modern U. S. Negro life from birth, shows that forces of isolation begin to act in Negro maternity hospitals and Negro kindergartens, carry through to Negro undertakers, Negro cemeteries; shows how naturally the Negro in adolescence and adult life relies on Negro newspapers for his news, whether or not he occasionally scans white newspapers and magazines. Ziff Co. drives home its point by presenting newspictures of Negro events which the average Negro obviously would want to see in his paper, and which the white Press does not attempt to supply. Samples: "Winning golf team in tournament at Sunset Hills Country. Club (Negro), Chicago"; "Wedding of couple popular in colored society circles of Memphis and Kansas City, culminated a campus romance"; "Mr. Nathaniel Jackson, runner-up in The 1932 National Colored Tennis Tournament."

To what extent do Negroes read white magazines? The booklet prints statistics gathered in 1929-1930 from dark families in Atlanta, Richmond, Nashville, Birmingham. Highest score was Literary Digest's 14% of 275 "business & professional" families. McCall's was runner-up with 9%; Ladies' Home Journal third, 7%. Among 702 "common and semiskilled labor" families, True Story topped the list with 4.8%. Among magazines for which only one subscriber was found: TIME, Vogue, Nation, College Humor.

Ziff Co. was established twelve years ago by William Bernard Ziff, now 34. Starting with the Chicago Defender he built up a large clientele of Negro publications whose efforts to solicit national advertising are hampered by "Jim Crow" rules in some Southern office buildings, tacit prejudice elsewhere. Most Negro newspapers are too indigent to maintain traveling representatives. One of Adman Ziff's first tasks was to persuade Negro publishers to audit their circulations accurately. In some cases he paid for the auditing himself.

When William Ziff first entered the field Negro papers carried little national advertising except hair-straightener, a few cosmetics, patent medicines. Now the list includes Camel cigarets, Bond Bread. Rumford Baking Powder, Bayer's Aspirin, Blue Ribbon Malt, Gillette Razors, Lifebuoy Soap.

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