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57. The following is from a campaign by Big Boards, Inc., to convince companies in River City that their sales will increase if they use Big Boards billboards for advertising their locally manufactured products. The potential of Big Boards to increase sales of your products can be seen from an experiment we conducted last year. We increased public awareness of the name of the current national womens marathon champion by publishing her picture and her name on billboards in River City for a period of three months. Before this time, although the champion had just won her title and was receiving extensive national publicity, only five percent of 15,000 randomly surveyed residents of River City could correctly name the champion when shown her picture; after the three-month advertising experiment, 35 percent of respondents from a second survey could supply her name. Discuss how well reasoned... etc. In an advertising experiment, Big Board, Inc. displayed the name and picture of a. little-known athlete on several of its local billboards over a 3-month period. Because the experiment increased recognition of the athletes name, Big Boards now argues that local companies will increase their sales if they advertise their products on Big Boards billboards. This argument is unconvincing for two important reasons. The main problem with this argument is that the advertising experiment with the athlete shows only that name recognition can be increased by billboard advertising; it does not show that product sales can be increased by this form of advertising. Name recognition, while admittedly an important aspect of a products selling potential, is not the only reason merchandise sells. Affordability, quality, and desirability are equally, if not more, important features a product must possess in order to sell. To suggest, as Big Boards campaign does, that name recognition alone is sufficient to increase sales is simply ludicrous. | 
