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OFFERS-UNLIMITED-OPPORTUNITIES

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(ABOVE) START OF A SPRINT RACE AT ONE OF THE TRACK MEETS  (LEFT) HOWARD'S CRACK QUINTET CONTENDERS FOR THE CIAA FLOOR TITLE

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(ABOVE) GRIDIRON HOPEFULS GOING THROUGH THEIR PACES  (RIGHT) TEAM SUPPORTERS RALLYING AROUND THE CHEER LEADER

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A GENERAL VIEW OF THE GRADUATION EXERCISES AT THE CAPSTONE OF NEGRO EDUCATION
(TOP INSET) HOWARD IS PROUD OF ITS CRACK RESERVE OFFICER'S TRAINING CORPS
(BOTTOM INSET) STUDENTS PARADE DOWN HOWARD'S "LONG WALK" ON COMMENCEMENT DAY TO GET DIPLOMAS

Flash! Twelve

Where you can tell
Your Advertising Story
To the Best Advantage

WHEN you were young, you must have at some time played that old, old game of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey." Blindfolded, you felt your way cautiously toward the tailless donkey mounted or painted on the wall, and tried to pin the paper tail to that portion of donkey anatomy which should have had a tail. Usually you hit his nose, ear, leg, midsection, or missed entirely. Wherever your blind stab landed, it was of no consequence to winning the prize unless you happened to hit the proper spot.

Advertising men, Industrialists, and Bankers no longer attempt to reach the Negro market with the hit or miss philosophy of "Pinning the Tail on the Donkey" in placing their advertising, designed to interest the Negro market, but have come to select advertising media with the same care that has been their custom in other branches of their business.

The total annual purchasing power of Negroes based on the fact that five and one-half millions of Negroes are gainfully employed is estimated at two billions of dollars. To this might be added the purchases made by millions of Negro employees, who are occupying positions requiring them to make purchases of nationally advertised commodities for their employers. This factor adds to the purchases of this class of merchandise from Negroes, because all people are selective either by contact or education.

Before the advent of the Negro press with its present-day modern coverage, the Maharajahs of business had been content to ignore the Negro market as being worthy of cultivation, but the constant fluctuation of the economic scale has called attention to a two billion dollar customer who was being neglected.

About 27.2% of this sum is spent for purchases of food; 14.9% for clothing; 12.4% for rent; 4.7% for fuel and light; 14% for furniture and household furnishings; 7.5% for savings, including insurance; 31.9% for miscellaneous purposes such as education, recreation, automobiles, their accessories and fuel and radios. Over three million Negro families own radios.

Quite contrary to the theories of many analysts of the Negro purchasing power is the fact that despite his lowered average income, he does not seek inferior merchandise. His tendency is to select a little better grade than others of similar income.

Fifty-seven issues ago we handed you our first issue of FLASH. This was the advent of America's first Negro newspicture magazine. Today we hand you our anniversary edition. To attempt to describe the flood tide and ebbtide of the ambitions, emotions, hope and despair of those whose efforts have been to scale the heights in presenting to America the best in Negro journals would be pointless; but to tell you that each issue has been an improvement over the preceding issue is important. Through the columns of FLASH you can tell your advertising story to the best advantage because FLASH'S reader interest is multiplied by the excellence of its pictured presentation of world events. The advertiser who turns to FLASH as an advertising medium finds that the door of church, school, club, lodge, and home are all ajar to welcome every issue, because it is universally accepted by all classes of people wherever it goes. FLASH unburies no hatchets, has no grindstone, and avoids every breath of scandal.

Thousands of readers in America attest its informative, cultural and entertainment values. Advertisers who want to reach the Negro market are not blindfoldedly trying to pin the tail on the donkey when they use FLASH as that medium of complete coverage for the Negro market, because they know beforehand that FLASH is the one Negro medium they can accept without apologies, or haphazard guessing.

Flash! Thirteen