The Advertising Council, Inc., a peacetime extension of an effective wartime agency, began a nation-wide campaign recently in which TIME is vitally interested (see p. 115). The object of the campaign is to acquaint every individual American with the critical importance to him of world trade & world travel.

Many of you will recall the War Advertising Council, which was created to furnish the Government (free of charge) with a centralized organization, including advertising agencies, advertisers, and all media (newspapers, magazines, radio, billboards, car cards, etc.) through which national campaigns could be put quickly and economically before as large an audience as possible. This was the organization that built the campaigns for war bonds, salvage, and the multitude of other emergency problems presented to the American public during the war years.

After V-J day the Council decided to remain in business because 1) the Government still needed the kind of service it could perform, and 2) peacetime problems were bound to arise which, although the Government might not be the appropriate sponsor, could certainly be considered matters of public welfare.

At the first meeting of the Advertising Council to canvass "public welfare" possibilities, it was decided that world trade & world travel was such a topic. In its own words, the Council's thinking on this vital subject was as follows:

Business, labor and Government leaders agree that a sound, balanced and greatly expanded "world trade is America's hope for the future. The time to start building this world trade is now, and the first step is to create a vigilant, informed public opinion on the subject.

The overall goal of this campaign is to take world trade out of the realm of international economists, and bring it down to the man on the street. It's to make Americans conscious of world trade as a vital force in their personal lives.

Then, and only then, will these citizens be able to think and act intelligently when they are called upon to make decisions affecting world trade.

The Council listed some major objectives for its educational campaign: 1) "To point out to the man on the street the vital importance of increased world trade."

2) "To show U.S. consumers that world trade is a two-way street; that others can't pay for our goods unless we buy from them."

3) "To encourage world travel as a vital part of world trade -- an additional means of getting money abroad to pay for our goods, and a builder of international understanding and goodwill."

Now, after months of checking the complex and controversial facts & figures of world trade so they could be presented honestly and clearly to U.S. citizens, the Advertising Council's campaign is under way via a series of newspaper and magazine advertisements (the one shown here is titled: Look . . . How Main Street Has Grown!), posters, car cards, billboard sheets, and a campaign guide that has gone out to leading advertisers, ad agencies, leading newspapers, magazines and radio.

Of its campaign, which has been joined by a group of cooperating organizations* and is being sponsored locally by a host of associations like the League of Women Voters, the Advertising Council has this to say:

The coming three months are the months of decision, for in these months, culminating in the United Nations Economic Conference in April, the American people will decide whether or not the United States is to revert to partial or total economic isolation -- or, in simpler words, whether the people of the United States are for or against world trade.

*Including the World Trade Foundation of America, the Twentieth Century Fund, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the National Planning Association.

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