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Mr Carlu                   November 24 1936

understand from that, that I am extremely interested in the matter. My associates have made several trips out of town to Philadelphia and Boston to show the film and to discuss this proposition, which has also been an expensive item. In addition to this we have lunched and dined with innumerable people thus far.

In the work which we have done in connection with this venture we have gained some very valuable experience in the handling of just this problem. We have approached it from all conceivable angles so that we might have the reaction of the manufacturer of electric signs on construction problems and costs; the viewpoint of the sales organization back of the manufacturer on their ideas of the possibilities for exploitation which they see in this sign; and again we have contacted innumerable of our friends connected with the largest advertising agencies in America to acquire from the promotion angles which they see of value to their clients. This has not been a simple job and the reconciliation of the three conflicting forces involved in these three types of mentalities has meant a good deal of conferring in order to clarify the situation. In each particular instance we find that either the manufacturer, his sales agent, or the advertising agency executives, have a different objection to the sign. In the first case, the manufacturer sees a tremendously expensive construction problem with which he is not familiar. In the second case, the sales agency see in certain aspects of this sign a conflict between their hard and fast rule concerning the selling of exclusive space to one advertiser as a difficult hurdle to overcome. And in the third case, the advertising agency, while more enthusiastic about this sign, feels that its operation might take away some money from an appropriation that might in their opinion be better used in other media of advertising.

In addition to these major difficulties, there are of course the attendant thousands of minor objections. For instance, the market here is somewhat limited to a very few people and control of the outdoor advertising business rests virtually in the hands of one extremely large group. The sign can, of course, ultimately be sold over and above their objections by cutting in back of them and going directly to the actual user of the sign. However, as I pointed out to you in Paris, things in America, contrary to what I have always thought, take a good deal more time than is commonly thought necessary. In the matter of construction, for instance, the sign people are considerably worried about the expense and difficulty to be encountered in convincing the Board of Fire Underwriters as to the desirability of passing upon the erection of these signs. In addition to being worried about these problems, they are naturally concerned with the question as to the length of time it will take them to reconstruct your sign for American usage in order to meet the very stringent