ABSTRACT
The critics of advertising hold that one of its disadvantages is that it contributes to economic instability. Professor Borden’s analysis is largely based on the experience of four recession and depression periods in the United States, 1907, 1914, 1920 and 1929. The evidence available for these periods appears to support Professor Borden’s contention that advertising expenditures and general economic activity move up together in prosperous times and decline in periods of economic adversity. Canada, like the United States, went through four periods of recession since the end of World War II. In all four recessions, advertising expenditures in Canada increased. The American study covers national advertising expenditures rather than total advertising expenditures.
