J& 
 
 

 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 uO 
 
 SOUTHERN BRANCH, 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, 
 
 LIBRARY, 
 
 LOS ANGELLS, CAUF. 
 
 
 'Graduate School of Business Administration 
 
 University of California' 
 
 Los Aageles 24, California
 
 FIRST PRINCIPLES 
 of ADVERTISING 
 
 By 
 
 WILBUR D. NESBIT 
 
 Vice-President, William H. Rankin Company 
 
 46978 
 
 THE GREGG PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 New York Chicago Boston San Francisco 
 
 London
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1922. BY THE 
 
 GREGG PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 I55-F-5 
 
 Printed in the United States of America
 
 Bvft. Admin. 
 Library 
 
 
 5823 
 W36F 
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 *? 
 
 * This textbook is not intended to be a volume 
 
 v for the practicing advertising man or woman, but 
 
 is virtually the "first steps" in the profession. It 
 
 is based on the actual experience of the author, 
 
 and has been planned and prepared along the lines 
 
 ^1 he would follow were the student a beginner in his 
 
 ' own department. It is assumed that the student 
 has no knowledge of advertising beyond the fact 
 that he has seen advertisements in their various 
 forms. It is further assumed that the chief desire 
 of the student is to write advertisements; and as it 
 is necessary to have some knowledge of the practice 
 
 4 of advertising, the various chapters are given to 
 ^j furnish that background and foundation. 
 
 Sincere appreciation is expressed and due 
 J* acknowledgements made of the obligation of the 
 author to his many friends in the profession who 
 have made valuable suggestions. It is planned 
 that a second volume shall go into the technical 
 details of an advertising department, advertising 
 agency work, and the other matters which become 
 essential after the student has qualified in his 
 preliminary work. 
 
 in
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 I The Beginnings of Advertising 1 
 
 II Advertising and Its Value 7 
 
 III Creating an Advertisement 11 
 
 IV How to Plan the Use of Type 15 
 
 V Study of the Product 21 
 
 VI Studying the Market 25 
 
 VII Dovetailing Advertising with Selling 29 
 
 VIII Getting the Selling Idea 33 
 
 IX The Problem of Getting Attention . . 37 
 
 X Methods of Creating Interest 41 
 
 XI Regulating the Amount of Copy ... 45 
 
 XII The Line of Human Appeal 51 
 
 XIII Varied Forms of Advertising 57 
 
 XIV Direct Appeal The House Organ 
 
 Mail Order 63 % 
 
 XV Determining the Size of the Cam- 
 paign . 71 
 
 XVI Laying Out Your Advertisement 75 
 
 XVII Working with the Artist 81 
 
 XVIII Writing an Advertisement 85' 
 
 XIX An Example of Preparing an Adver- 
 tisement 89 
 
 XX Printing and Plates 95 
 
 XXI The "Slogan" 103 
 
 XXII A Parting Word : 109
 
 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 I 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF ADVERTISING 
 
 In the Old Testament book of Ruth, written a 
 great many centuries ago, we find perhaps the 
 earliest mention of advertising, and it is directly 
 connected with the thought of selling. 
 
 "Now Boaz went up to the gate of the city and sat 
 him down there." The gate of the city, in the old, 
 old days, was naturally a center of life and busi- 
 ness, for it was where all the people went out and 
 came in. Just as it is said today that if you sit 
 long enough at a certain corner in Paris you will 
 see every American who is in France, because he 
 will pass that spot, so at the gate of the olden 
 cities could eventually be seen practically every- 
 body of importance in them. 
 
 At the city gate, therefore, after waiting until 
 his audience was before him, Boaz said: 
 
 "I thought to advertise thee, saying, Buy it 
 before the inhabitants, and before the elders of 
 my people." 5 
 
 That is "what advertising is today an effort to 
 tell people about something and to get them to 
 buy it. 
 
 In the British Museum is an advertisement that 
 is thirty centuries old. It was written on papyrus 
 
 * Ruth iv:4.
 
 2 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 by a wealthy Egyptian, and offered a reward for 
 the return of a runaway slave. All advertising 
 in these early days of the world, however, was not 
 done by written messages, because few people 
 could read. But people could always talk and 
 listen, consequently as far back as history takes 
 us we find what we used to term the "town crier." 
 In Greece and Rome, even in the brightest days 
 of their ancient civilization, the town crier existed. 
 Truth to tell, the town crier is not so obsolete an 
 institution as might be thought. A quarter of a 
 century ago he was still employed in many Ameri- 
 can towns and may be yet, for that matter. 
 
 In Greece, on a certain space on the outer walls 
 of homes, advertisements were written. In the 
 ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum are found many 
 walls which were used for advertising purposes. 
 In Rome real estate sales were advertised by means 
 of small hand bills. There, too, booksellers posted 
 the titles of new offerings in the windows of their 
 shops. The public baths were popular spots for 
 advertising. 
 
 The introduction of the printing press in the 
 fifteenth century really marks the beginning of 
 advertising as we now regard it, although it was 
 not until 1647 that what is said to have been the 
 first newspaper advertisement was published. It 
 appeared in "Perfect Occurrences or Every Daie 
 Journal in Parliament and Other Moderate Intel- 
 ligence," which was printed in London. The 
 advertisement in question read: 
 
 "A Book applauded by the Clergy of England, 
 called the Divine Right of Church Government, 
 Collected by sundry eminent Ministers in the
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF ADVERTISING 3 
 
 Citie of London; Corrected and augmented in 
 many places, with a briefe Reply to certain 
 queries against the Ministery of England; Is 
 printed and published for Joseph Hunscot and 
 George Calvert, and are to be sold at the Sta- 
 tioners Hall, and at the Golden Fleece in the 
 Old Change." 
 
 The weekly newspapers of that time were 
 generally called "Mercuries." On the 4th of 
 October, 1648, in the Mercurius Elencticus, ap- 
 peared this advertisement: 
 
 "The Reader is desired to peruse a Sermon, 
 Entitled A Looking-Glasse for Levellers, Preached 
 at St. Peters, Paules Wharf, on Sunday, Sept. 24th, 
 1648, by Paul Knell, Mr. of Arts. Another 
 Tract called a Reflex upon Reformers, with a 
 prayer for the Parliament." 
 
 In January, 1652, Mercurius Politicus contained 
 the following advertisement, which the Encyclo- 
 pedia Britannica says has often been erroneously 
 cited as the first among newspaper advertisements : 
 
 "Irenodia Gratulatoria, a heroic poem, being 
 a congratulatory panegyrick for my Lord General's 
 return, summing up his success in an exquisite 
 manner. To be sold by John Holden, in the 
 New Exchange, London, Printed by Thomas New- 
 court, 1652." 
 
 At first, advertisements seem to have been de- 
 voted either to books or to quack remedies. 
 Johnson's Dictionary, for example, was advertised 
 by a number of booksellers, who clubbed together 
 to announce that this famous work was published 
 and could be obtained through them. But the 
 first advertisement that may be construed as one 
 published by some one "in trade" was one intended 
 to help introduce a new article to the public. It
 
 4 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 was a food advertisement, also. It told the public 
 of tea, and it appeared in Mercurius Politicus in 
 September of 1558: 
 
 "That excellent and by all Physitians approved 
 China Drink, called by the Chineans Tcha, by 
 other nations Tay, alias Tee, is sold at the Sul- 
 taness Head, a cophee-house in Sweeting Rents, 
 by the Royal Exchange, London." 
 
 The first daily newspaper in England was the 
 "Daily Courant," established in 1702. In America, 
 the first daily was the "Boston News Letter," 
 established in 1704. Advertising has had its 
 greatest development in America, yet the files of 
 the early newspapers of this country show that 
 the idea of advertising in these days was about as 
 stilted and formal as the style of those we have 
 quoted from publications of the 1600's. But 
 the power and influence of the printed word were 
 not under-estimated. When the Constitution of 
 the United States was trembling in the balance of 
 adoption, a committee was appointed to supply 
 the newspapers with arguments in its favor, and 
 partly by this means the people were won to its 
 support. At that time the total circulation of all 
 the newspapers published in the United States 
 was around 80,000. 
 
 We do not find advertising growing very greatly 
 in volume until after the civil war. It is said that 
 prior to the civil war the largest amount expended 
 for an advertisement was $3,000 this being spent 
 by a manufacturer of scales. Today it is far from 
 an unusual thing for an advertiser to pay $10,000 
 or $12,000 for a single insertion of an adver- 
 tisement.
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF ADVERTISING 5 
 
 We may trace the growth of advertising in 
 America and find that its increase is attributable 
 to three fofces the utilization of electricity, the 
 development of transportation, the widening of 
 industry. Electricity, appljeiLJiL- the- -telegraph. 
 the_telephone^ and to lighting to say nothing of 
 its use as power-^gave fhelworld belleiiand-quieker 
 communication and afforded a means_ofjllumina- 
 tion which promoted greater efficiency 
 Thisiad its conseuences in 
 
 ing production. Increased production called for a 
 wider marl 
 
 Broadening of transportation facilities not only 
 bettered the means of reaching and supplying 
 newer markets, but enabled the spread of industry 
 and the opening up of idle territory. Large cities 
 grew larger; towns grew into cities; and unculti- 
 vated sections of the country were converted into 
 productive areas. The population increased, and 
 with this increase came a demand for newspapers 
 and magazines. Likewise, as will be seen, the 
 possible market for all kinds of goods was made 
 immeasurably greater. t 
 
 Selling methods that were once on the old, 
 leisurely scale, now had to be revised to a much 
 higher degree of effectiveness. Advertisements 
 grew larger and more forceful. Some daring soul 
 introduced illustrations into them which were not 
 of the cut-and-dried sort. They began to show 
 life. Yet even the advertisers did not quite under- 
 stand the tool they were using. Like many other 
 things in this country, which mushroomed into 
 prominence and into general use, advertising was 
 not considered at its true worth and full value.
 
 6 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 Before long, however, various men commenced to 
 study it, and to improve it. It was seen that if 
 the best minds in the country could devote them- 
 selves to the building up of businesses, then other 
 best minds could apply themselves to acquiring 
 understanding of this force which, even when 
 used blindly, was a mighty help to business. 
 
 Perhaps it is for the reason that the American 
 applies himself to a task with feverish eagerness 
 that advertising has made its greatest strides in 
 this country. It is certain, nevertheless, that the 
 combination of imagination and common sense 
 has been rapidly making of the following of 
 advertising both a profession and a business. 
 
 This brief sketch of the history of advertising 
 has been given in order that we may have some 
 slight foundation for what shall follow. A whole 
 volume might be compiled, giving the very 
 interesting story of the development of advertis- 
 ing, and reproducing the quaint and curious 
 examples that are available, but our purpose is to 
 consider the practical side of present day advertis- 
 ing work. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 1. Give some early examples of advertising. 
 2. How did the Egyptians and Greeks advertise? 
 3. What were the first advertisements in 
 
 printed form? 
 4. How was the Constitution of the United 
 
 States "sold" to the people? 
 5. When did American advertising begin to 
 
 grow in volume? Why? 
 6. In what way were selling methods revised? 
 
 Why did this become necessary?
 
 II 
 
 ADVERTISING AND ITS VALUE 
 
 Advertising is multiplied information concern- 
 ing the ability of the advertiser to supply a product 
 or a service. It is news of the thing we wish to 
 buy or the thing we may be influenced to buy. 
 Advertising tells us where to secure that which ,. 
 will supply a need; often it actually creates the 
 need. 
 
 It is the quietest and the strongest force in 
 our lives. We may say that we are not influenced 
 by advertising, but we are, and that constantly. 
 If all advertising were ended at this moment, 
 within a month we should be wondering what 
 to eat, what to wear, where to go, what to see 
 and almost what to do. Our lives would become 
 monotonous. We do not realize how greatly we 
 depend upon advertising. 
 
 The power of advertising has been the greatest 
 instrument in creating the widespread use of the 
 automobile, the phonograph, the electric light, 
 the gas range, the cigarette, the fountain pen, the 
 typewriter, and on down the list of things which 
 are so commonplace as almost to escape our 
 notice. 
 
 The student of advertising should give his 
 special attention to the advertising of today. 
 
 7
 
 g FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 It will interest him to trace the development of 
 the market of any particular product through adver- 
 tising, just as it would interest a medical student 
 to trace the progress of medicine through the 
 centuries. But the young doctor, stepping from 
 a medical school with his diploma, must begin 
 his work at once with the knowledge and the 
 methods of the day. So with the advertising 
 man. 
 
 Success in planning and preparing advertising 
 is individual. Nearly every one can sing, but 
 individuality and temperament and personality 
 regulate the degree of accomplishment. Given 
 the musical sense and a teachable voice, the 
 student of singing must then master technique in 
 order to get full value from his inherited or natural 
 traits. 
 
 The business of advertising calls for common 
 sense and for inspiration. Inspiration must have 
 a foundation. The bright, the clever, the smart 
 idea is not always the right one. A chain of good 
 ideas is much better. Smartness, cleverness, 
 unusualness these have the potential danger of 
 entertaining the reader too much. The real 
 salesman knows just when to quit telling stories 
 and to begin selling goods. The first thing to do 
 in beginning work at advertising is to cultivate the 
 faculty of becoming interested. You may feel 
 that some products are devoid of interest for you. 
 But if you compel yourself to realize fully that 
 all this is part of your profession, part of your 
 business, and that your livelihood and your 
 success depend upon it, you will quickly find 
 yourself taking an acute interest in products and
 
 ADVERTISING AND ITS VALUE 9 
 
 in people, no matter how uninteresting you may 
 have considered them before. 
 
 The place of advertising in business is not to 
 show how many bright things the advertiser may 
 be presumed to write and print, but is to create 
 business for him and to build up good will for 
 him. Good will is an asset, for a company or for 
 an individual. Reflect upon the good will repre- 
 sented by such words as "Kodak," "Silvertown," 
 "Borden's," /'Arrow," "Gold Medal," "Wilson's" 
 "Wanamaker," "Marshall Field," "Twentieth Cen- 
 tury," "Tiffany's" and so on. The personnel of 
 these institutions may change, but the personality 
 of the concern in the minds of its customers 
 remains the same. 
 
 The work of any advertisement can be done by 
 an individual. Given the time and the patience, 
 it is fair to assume than an individual could do 
 the work better than the advertisement. The 
 circulations of some of the leading newspapers 
 and periodicals is from half a million to over two 
 millions. One salesman could call on each of these 
 subscribers, and tell the same story that is told 
 in an advertisement. For example, suppose we 
 consider two million subscribers to a magazine. 
 Suppose we create a sales force of one thousand 
 men, whose duty is to visit these subscribers one 
 by one and repeat to them what the advertisement 
 is intended to tell them. One thousand men, 
 calling on at least fifty people each day, would 
 reach all of the two million people in forty days. 
 One man at the same task would require forty 
 thousand days a little more than a century. Yet 
 the printed message to the two million people
 
 10 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 reaches each of them practically at the same 
 moment certainly within one day. 
 
 It is this shortening of time, this multiplication 
 of approach, which adds to the economic value of 
 advertising both to the advertiser and the con- 
 sumer. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 1. What is advertising? 
 
 2. What has advertising helped greatly to 
 
 develop? 
 3. What should the student of advertising 
 
 realize? 
 4. Name several businesses or products which 
 
 have built up good will through advertising. 
 
 Name as many as you can that are not 
 
 mentioned in this chapter. 
 5. How does advertising shorten time and 
 
 lower the cost of reaching the customer? 
 6. If you were obliged to reach a certain number 
 
 of people in a certain trade territory, what 
 
 mediums would you use, and how would 
 
 you appeal to them? Take any section 
 
 with which you are familiar and outline how 
 
 you would handle this.
 
 or* 
 
 What 
 
 Columbias 
 do 
 
 ignition 
 
 -ring bcU 
 
 ,-TUA toys 
 
 -ti** te*<* w*J 
 0K9wi0tllM 
 
 -furn'n^ lofwoi 
 cafrMt (of a 
 
 gM for Clltitjt M-Z*t'- 
 
 <^of fereTSSa 
 
 Columbia 
 
 Dry Batteries 
 
 Rough Sketch Designed to Set the Style for the 
 Preliminary Campaign
 
 Columbia 
 
 Dry Batteries 
 
 they last longer 
 
 The Finished Drawing
 
 What 
 
 Arias 
 
 -ring bells 
 -protect bank vaults 
 -call the police 
 -ring fire alarm* 
 -buzz buzzers 
 -fire blasts 
 -run toys 
 
 Call Pullman 
 
 car porters 
 
 light trnts and 
 
 outbuildings 
 -furnish ignition 
 ent 
 
 r quick start 
 
 ing of Ford can 
 
 Jcoera] MOT**. 
 
 Imiit upon Colombil 
 
 Pleasure and safety are doubly assured with the powerful 
 and sustained ignition current of the Columbia "Hot Shot" 
 Dry Battery on board. The "Hot Shot" is universally used 
 for motor boat ignition and lighting because it gives more 
 power, lasts longer, and is obtained everywhere at low cost 
 
 Various Units Shown Separately Before Being Assembled
 
 What 
 
 Columbia? 
 do 
 
 furnish ignition 
 forVnotor boat* 
 -ring bells 
 -protect bank vault* 
 -call the police 
 -ring fire alarm* 
 -buzz buzzer* 
 -hre blasts 
 run toy* 
 call Pullman 
 car porter* 
 
 -operate telegraphs 
 and telephones 
 
 -light tent* and 
 outbuildings 
 
 -furnish ignition 
 current for da* 
 .tticfetm 
 
 Columbia 
 
 Dry Batteries 
 
 they last longer 
 
 Pleasure and safety are doubly assured with the powerful 
 and sustained ignition current of the Columbia "Hot Shot" 
 Dry Battery on board. The "Hot Shot" is universally used 
 for motor boat ignition and lighting because it gives more 
 power, lasts longer, and is obtained everywhere at low cost 
 
 The Complete Advertisement
 
 Ill 
 
 CREATING AN ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 The advertising man must have a conscience. 
 He must have a realization of his responsibility 
 toward the advertiser and the consumer. He 
 must have clarity of vision and readiness of 
 appreciation. He must be sympathetic. He must 
 understand that vague quality so often called 
 "human nature." He must have the selling sense. 
 
 As you progress in advertising you will find 
 yourself developing in two directions one path 
 leading into the events that have led up to the 
 advertising, the other leading toward the desired 
 effect of the advertising. 
 
 Each advertisement is one incident in a chain 
 of events. One day does not make a month; nor 
 can one advertisement make a campaign. A cam- 
 paign may consist of the same argument or the 
 same appeal made over and over again in fact, 
 the successful campaign is reasonably sure to be 
 based on one fundamental principle. This may 
 be a certain way of emphasizing a particular or 
 exclusive desirability of the product advertised. 
 It may be accomplished by word or picture, but 
 it must be done. 
 
 There is a certain advantage in what is called 
 "change of copy." That is, in telling the story in 
 
 11
 
 12 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 a different way each time. First of all, however, 
 the student of advertising should approach his 
 work with the thought that advertising is a 
 combination of business and profession. The mere 
 writing of an advertisement is, as we have said, 
 an incident. Before an advertisement is written, 
 the purpose and plan of the whole campaign must 
 be understood. 
 
 Ask yourself: "What happened before I was 
 asked to write this advertisement? What has led 
 up to this? And what is expected to follow it?" 
 
 In other words, look upon the advertisement 
 itself as one link in a chain. Study the chain. 
 Fix it in your mind until you know it link by 
 link, then you will be able to produce advertise- 
 ments that are consistent with the entire plan. 
 
 After an advertisement is written it must be 
 put into type and printed. It is important that 
 you visualize the mechanical details of your 
 advertisement before you write it. You can get 
 just so many words into a printed line. Your 
 handwriting may be varied you may write large 
 or small. You may interline or erase. You may 
 write lines that are long or short. But only so 
 many words may go on a page that is printed. 
 You should endeavor to acquire a "sense" of 
 words and space. But as you progress in writing 
 advertising you will develop the instinct which 
 will give you a mental picture of your advertise- 
 ment in printed form. You will simply transfer 
 that picture from your mind to the paper. 
 
 If you were to describe something to a friend- 
 something you wished that friend to buy you 
 would be face to face with your friend, he would
 
 CREATING AN ADVERTISEMENT 13 
 
 see your eyes, he would note your facial expression, 
 your gestures, the rise and fall of your voice. All 
 of this cannot be put into cold type, but a great 
 part of it may be so expressed. 
 
 Your first effort would be to attract and hold 
 the attention of your friend. Your second effort 
 would be to interest him, then to persuade him, 
 then to inspire him to act. Your advertisement, 
 therefore, must first seize upon his attention. 
 But you can attract attention without awakening 
 the kind of interest you desire. You might walk 
 into your friend's home dressed in a clown's suit, 
 turn a handspring and then perch yourself on his 
 piano. That certainly would attract his attention, 
 but the action it would inspire would not be the 
 kind that would prove he was overcome with 
 admiration. So with your advertisement. If you 
 approach your friend (and it is well to give your- 
 self the feeling that every one who sees your 
 advertisement is your friend, and to hold the 
 thought that you want your readers to believe you 
 to be their friend) if you approach him in a 
 human way you will get a human response. You 
 are approaching him with printed words and 
 possibly a picture. Your purpose is to create a 
 mental impression and secure a physical response. 
 Your advertisement must inspire him with belief 
 in the product advertised and with a desire to 
 possess it or to utilize its benefits. Your approach 
 to him is through his eyes only. He is not com- 
 pelled to read your advertisement. You must 
 make him see it and want to read it. 
 
 It follows, then, that you must make your 
 advertisement easy for him to see and attractive
 
 14 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 for him to read. You must put your confidence 
 into the advertisement, into its very appearance. 
 
 Having succeeded in this, your advertisement 
 then must do its work. It has a very definite 
 place in the sales work of the advertiser. Think 
 of your advertisement in the terms of the indi- 
 vidual, however. It speaks to many thousands, 
 but it speaks to each one by himself or herself. 
 
 Each advertisement you write and print should, 
 in your mind, become an individual assistant to an 
 individual salesman, making individual calls and 
 preparing the way for, if not making, the actual 
 sale. It is the representative of the advertiser; 
 it is the advertiser himself. Good faith, good 
 will and good service must be expressed in it. 
 
 1. What quality should an advertising man 
 cultivate? 
 
 2. What should underlie an advertising cam- 
 paign? 
 
 3. How should you study the task of preparing 
 an advertisement or a campaign? 
 
 4. How should you visualize the reader of your 
 advertisement ? 
 
 5. What must you try to make your advertise- 
 ment accomplish? 
 
 6. Prepare an advertisement on any product 
 you may choose, and try to plan and com- 
 plete it so that it will sell one article to any 
 one individual that you have in mind. Ex- 
 plain why you prepare it in this way, and 
 what medium you would use to convey the 
 message to the single individual.
 
 IV 
 
 HOW TO PLAN THE USE OF TYPE 
 
 There are hundreds, even thousands, of dif- 
 ferent type faces. More are added from year to 
 year, and at the same time type faces which have 
 been popular gradually pass out of use. You will 
 see a large number of the really good faces in the 
 advertisements which you study in current publica- 
 tions. But you will observe that in the main there 
 is a certain characteristic school of type which holds 
 favor. And as your experience in advertising 
 lengthens into years you will find that certain type 
 faces retain their popularity; this, because of their 
 symmetry, ease of reading, and adaptability to 
 display purposes. To familiarize yourself with the 
 different styles of type faces, or different kinds 
 of letters, as to design, obtain any good type 
 founder's catalogue, or perhaps you can borrow 
 from a friendly newspaper one of its "style books," 
 which shows every kind of type used on that paper 
 and tells what kind and size it is. We could print 
 several pages of type specimens here, but it would 
 only be taking up space which can be devoted, 
 perhaps, to a better purpose. 
 
 Although there are so many different kinds, or 
 styles, in the faces of type, there is a definite 
 standard for type bodies; that is, the size of the 
 
 15
 
 16 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 type itself, which determines the up-and-down 
 width of the line, is established. It is known as 
 the point system, and was adopted some years 
 ago by the Typefounders Association of the United 
 States in order to undo the confusion which had 
 existed. The point system abolished the old 
 names of type-bodies, such as "nonpareil," "bour- 
 geois," etc., and established the custom of referring 
 to type-bodies as 6-point, 8-point, and so on. It 
 is just as if you referred to a one-inch or a three- 
 inch plank. 
 
 It is essential that you have a grasp of the 
 point system in type, so that you can estimate 
 either on paper or mentally the number of words 
 you must write to fill a certain space, or how 
 many words will occupy the number of square 
 inches devoted to type in the advertisement you 
 are preparing. 
 
 In the point system, there are seventy- two 
 "points" to the inch. If the line of type is five 
 inches long, it will hold 360 points. But naturally, 
 the different letters being of different widths, it 
 would be hard and tedious for you to compute 
 the probable number of letters you could get 
 into a line. Therefore we stick to the old scheme 
 of saying that a line is so many "ems" long. An 
 "em" means the square of the type body. That 
 is, an em of a 10-point type will be 10-points 
 square, and so on. Six 12-point ems make an 
 inch. The word "em" arises from the fact that 
 the letter "m" is exactly square. The 12-point 
 used to be called Pica, and therefore you will 
 still hear some one refer to a space as being "about 
 twenty picas deep," or the like.
 
 HOW TO PLAN THE USE OF TYPE 17 
 
 To estimate the number of words that will go 
 in the space you have alloted for reading matter, 
 exclusive of headings, of course, you should 
 reduce the space to square inches. If you were 
 going to use the same type body in every advertise- 
 ment you write, then you naturally would know 
 how many lines there would be on the page and 
 could approximate the number of words by the 
 average tot he line. But you will be called upon to 
 use different sizes of type, and often two or three 
 different sizes in the same advertisement. There- 
 fore, until you have acquired the knack of "sens- 
 ing" the number of words you must use, figure it 
 out by square inches. If the type matter is to be 
 "leaded," that is, if it is to have a thin strip of lead 
 placed between each two lines, you should add 
 two points to the size of the type body. A "lead" 
 is 2-points deep, always. Thus, if you are using 
 10-point type, leaded, you will estimate on a 
 12-point basis, and so on. 
 
 The number of words that will go in a square 
 inch of the various sizes of type in general use, 
 when set solid (unleaded) is shown in the following 
 table. To give you an idea of the appearance 
 of the different sizes, each line is set in the type- 
 body it represents. Thus: 
 
 S-pt .A square inch holds 69 words 
 
 S 1-2 pt. A square inch holds 65 words 
 
 6-pt. A square inch holds 47 words 
 
 7-pt. A square inch holds 38 words 
 
 8-pt. A square inch holds 32 words 
 
 9-pt. A square inch holds 28 words 
 
 lopt. A square inch holds 21 words 
 
 i 2-pt. A square inch holds 17 words
 
 18 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 I4~pt. A square inch holds.... n words 
 
 i8-pt. A square inch holds 
 
 7 words 
 
 24-pt. A square inch 
 holds 4 words 
 
 You will find this helpful not only in estimating 
 the number of words for any given space in any 
 given advertisement, but of especial benefit in 
 finding out how much copy you must write for 
 booklets, circulars, catalogues, etc. Thus, if the 
 type space on a page of a booklet is 3 x 5 inches, 
 then you have 15 square inches to fill. If it is 
 set in 10-pt. type it will "run" 315 words to the 
 page, set solid. If you are to have a ten page 
 booklet, you will naturally require 3,150 words; 
 or, conversely, if you have taken around 3,000 
 words to cover your subject you must have ten 
 pages in your booklet. You will learn that you 
 must make some slight allowance for paragraphs, 
 but in the main you will find this system to work 
 mathematically. 
 
 1. Why is it important to be familiar with 
 
 different type faces and styles? 
 2. What is the standard for type bodies? Why 
 
 was it adopted? 
 3. How may you estimate the number of 
 
 words required for a given space?
 
 HOW TO PLAN THE USE OF TYPE 19 
 
 4. Select from newspapers or magazines adver- 
 tisements which illustrate the points brought 
 out in this lesson. 
 
 5. Without regard to making sense, clip from 
 newspapers or magazines the lines printed 
 in the kind of type you would use and paste 
 these on a sheet of paper to show how you 
 would arrange an advertisement so that 
 typographically it would best attract and 
 hold attention.
 
 V 
 
 STUDY OF THE PRODUCT 
 
 Before attempting to write an advertisement, 
 familiarize yourself with the product to be adver- 
 tised and sold. At all times keep in mind the 
 fact that the product is not only to be advertised 
 but that it is to be sold. 
 
 The moment you begin to write advertising of a 
 particular product you leave the field of general 
 observation, or of theory, and enter actual practice. 
 You may write advertisements for a dozen or a 
 hundred different products, but you must concen- 
 trate on each one as if it were the only one. For 
 the time being, it is the only one. 
 
 In the study of a product begin with the raw 
 materials. If it be canned corn, for example, you 
 should learn where the corn is grown and why 
 that particular corn is selected. Learn the 
 methods of handling the corn; how it is cared 
 for after being gathered; how quickly it is carried 
 to the cannery. Find out how it is prepared for 
 canning, and the methods employed. There may 
 be some particular step that means a better 
 product. 
 
 If the product be shoes, use the same method. 
 Learn what leathers are used, and why. 
 Learn how they are used, and why. Learn what 
 
 21
 
 22 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 specific claims are made as to superiority in manu- 
 facture, in style, in wear. Things we wear are 
 first of all noticeable because of their appearance. 
 Give plenty of thought to the appearance of the 
 shoe, for the purchaser of a pair of shoes not 
 only has in mind the price he is paying and the 
 style of the shoe, but how his feet will look when 
 he is wearing the shoes. 
 
 It will be good practice for the student to select 
 some commodity made in his locality and give 
 it intensive study. Approach it with this mental 
 attitude: What is there about this product which 
 will make me buy it in preference to any other? 
 Or, select a store in your own neighborhood and 
 develop the reasons why you should trade at that 
 store rather than at any of its competitors. 
 
 Remember at all times that an advertisement 
 must constantly answer the question, "Why?" 
 The more convincing you can make your advertise- 
 ment, the more certain it will be that you will 
 leave no unanswered "Why?" in the mind of its 
 reader. 
 
 You must put the product in the advertise- 
 ment. By this is meant that if it is to be a shoe 
 advertisement it must be filled with nothing but 
 shoe talk. When you write it you must be as 
 enthusiastic over the product as if you your- 
 self were the manufacturer. The advertisement 
 is not written to exhibit your education or your 
 genius or your cleverness, but to sell one par- 
 ticular kind of shoes. 
 
 Belief is the most contagious thing in the world. 
 Unless you firmly believe in the product for which 
 you write advertising, you will not awaken the
 
 STUDY OF THE PRODUCT 23 
 
 response for which you hope. You should study 
 it and consider it from all angles. At first you 
 may not see or hear anything about it which 
 inspires you, but as you go along you will develop 
 this and that point, until at last you have con- 
 verted yourself to a most decisive support of the 
 product. 
 
 This is a mental process. It need not be clouded 
 by the term "psychology," which is a long word 
 that often frightens us away from what we want 
 to accomplish. There is nothing mysterious about 
 it. You can train your fingers to play a piano, 
 although your first efforts will be so clumsy and 
 awkward as to make you feel that never in the 
 world can you play. But patience and practice 
 eventually train those fingers of yours until their 
 mastery of the keys is second nature. So it is 
 with your mind. It will go in the way you wish it 
 to go, it will think as you will it to think, if you 
 train it. 
 
 When you have taught your mind to grasp the 
 belief-points in a product, you will be able to 
 convey that belief to one person or to a million. 
 You will be able to express in the advertisements 
 you write and print the same confidence, the same 
 selling force, which you can put into the spoken 
 word. 
 
 This belief which you can transmit to others 
 becomes a tremendous power for the success of 
 the advertiser. It is lasting. It is creative. 
 
 Few men and few products are without fault. 
 The pessimist has no place in advertising. The 
 pessimist first looks for faults. The optimist sees 
 the virtues and minimizes or overlooks the faults,
 
 24 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 knowing that goodness can and does eventually 
 eliminate badness, and that strength overcomes 
 weakness. 
 
 Mental training influences your efficiency toward 
 the better. When you are preparing yourself to 
 write advertising for a product, put yourself in 
 this state of mind: "This product is good for 
 people to own and use. It will benefit them. They 
 are going to like it and buy it. It is going to 
 
 succeed." 
 
 * * * * 
 
 1. How should you begin to study the product 
 to be advertised? 
 
 2. What question must an advertisement an- 
 swer? 
 
 3. What quality must you instill into an 
 advertisement? 
 
 4. What is the value of belief in preparing 
 advertising? 
 
 5. Select from advertisements you see those 
 which most inspire you with confidence. 
 
 6. Select from some publication the poorest 
 advertisement it contains and rewrite or 
 rearrange it in the way that you believe 
 would make it 100% good.
 
 VI 
 
 STUDYING THE MARKET 
 
 Before planning or attempting to prepare an 
 advertising campaign for any product it is most 
 essential that you know how tHe product is 
 marketed. It may be sold through special branch 
 stores; it may be sold through exclusive dealers; 
 it may be sold through all dealers or as many as 
 can be persuaded to carry it in stock. It may be 
 sold direct by mail to the purchaser. 
 
 However it may be distributed to the consumer, 
 the first step is to gain a knowledge of its market. 
 It may be a product which can only be sold in 
 certain sections of the country or at certain 
 seasons of the year. Ice skates, for instance, 
 would find no market in climates that are con- 
 tinually warm ; local customs or climatic conditions 
 may create or prevent sales of particular commodi- 
 ties. Again, there are products which are season- 
 able, such as some of the nut margarines, which 
 do not always "stand up" well in hot weather and 
 therefore are pushed hardest in cold weather. 
 The market for a product, therefore, often depends 
 upon the time of sale as well as upon the place. 
 
 There are two prime factors in a market, the 
 dealer and the consumer. The chief aim of all 
 advertising and selling plans is to place the product 
 
 25
 
 26 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 in the hands of the consumer. Just how the 
 article must be advertised depends upon the 
 attitude, or the possible attitude, of the consumer 
 toward it. If it is a new product to be launched 
 in a competitive field, then it is necessary to 
 learn what the consumers think of the competitive 
 products, which one they prefer, and why. 
 
 The competitive product may be assumed to 
 have earned its market through some special 
 appeal to the public whether it be price or 
 quality or both. It may fill a need; it may hold 
 its market simply because the consuming public 
 is loath to change its habit of buying that particu- 
 lar thing. First, secure samples of the competitive 
 product or products. Compare them with the 
 product to be advertised. 
 
 Do not overlook the good points of the competi- 
 tor. Loyalty to the product you are going to 
 advertise will of necessity color your opinion of it, 
 but you must realize that the competitor must 
 have its good points also or people would not buy 
 it. 
 
 Study the competitive goods, and study your 
 own product, so that you will be able to emphasize 
 the good side of your own in a way which will 
 eclipse the good points of the other. It may be an 
 automobile for which you are to prepare the 
 advertising. Yours may be a very good automobile 
 for its price, but there are others in that class, 
 let us say. Also there are automobiles of a higher 
 class. Your automobile will have certain features, 
 ease of handling, quickness of response, comfort, 
 or other features which deserve emphasis. Do 
 not be satisfied with knowing only your own
 
 STUDYING THE MARKET 27 
 
 product. Know the competition all of it and 
 know the market. You are then fortified to meet 
 any emergency which may arise, and emergencies 
 arise every day in advertising. 
 
 The attitude of the consumer, as has been said, 
 is vitally important. The consumer may have no 
 attitude at all toward your product, because he 
 has never seen or heard of it. On the other hand, 
 the consumer may have had previous experience 
 with the product and may have formed an antipathy 
 toward it. This antipathy may be removed now, 
 because the product has been improved to over- 
 come the faults which lost it the market. Yet, 
 there is competition and the consumer is buying 
 the competitive product. 
 
 Mathematics is said to be the only exact science. 
 It is sometimes hard to believe, but human beings 
 react mathematically. The law of averages holds 
 good in a market as it does in anything else. If you 
 secure the opinions of a certain percentage of the 
 people in a community, and then put your ques- 
 tionnaire to the same percentage in other com- 
 munities, you will find the results to work out 
 for the mass according to that percentage. Thus, 
 if four people out of twenty in a given section 
 believe in and use a certain thing, and eight 
 people out of twenty in another community have 
 the same attitude, and so on, by the time you 
 have investigated forty communities or a hundred 
 you will arrive at a percentage basis on which 
 to estimate not only your possible market but also 
 the obstacles your advertising has to meet and 
 overcome. 
 
 In the writer's personal experience, ten people
 
 28 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 in each community in a number of states were 
 asked how they would vote in the presidential 
 election of 1916, as well as how they voted in 
 the previous presidential year. With the replies 
 as a basis, the probable results in four states were 
 estimated with remarkable accuracy. Yet the 
 number of voters interviewed would seem to 
 have been entirely too few to give anything 
 approaching an accurate basis for a forecast. 
 
 1. Upon what does the market for a product 
 
 depend? 
 
 2. What are the principal factors in a market? 
 3. Should you study competitors and their 
 
 methods? 
 4. Does mathematics play a part in studying a 
 
 market? How? 
 5. Give your own reasons why a knowledge 
 
 of the possible market is essential to the 
 
 production of proper advertising. 
 6. In your spare moments go among ten 
 
 dealers and ten consumers and ask them 
 
 about any one product and its competitors. 
 
 Write a merchandizing report based on this 
 
 investigation.
 
 VII 
 
 DOVETAILING ADVERTISING WITH SELLING 
 
 Consumer attitude is one thing; dealer attitude 
 is another. The dealer has his capital tied up in 
 stock. He does not wish to introduce a new line 
 unless he is sure of sales; he does not desire to lay 
 in something which will make dead stock of some- 
 thing else for which he has paid. Yet, the dealer 
 is the servant of his customers. The consumer 
 does not have to buy that which he does not 
 want, therefore, the dealer is sooner or later 
 controlled by consumer attitude toward a product. 
 The dealer profits or suffers by the opinion of his 
 customers as to the goods he sells them. The 
 dealer has experience with hundreds of products 
 and hundreds of people, where the consumer's 
 experience and opinion are individual. 
 
 To experiment in getting the attitude of the 
 dealer, visit ten or twenty groceries in your own 
 locality. Preferably take a list of such stores 
 scattered about your territory. Ask each grocer, 
 or one of his salesmen, how such and such goods 
 move. Take washing powders, for example. 
 Ask him which one is in greatest demand. Ask 
 him which ones move most slowly. Ask him which 
 ones he finds "repeat" that is, are asked for 
 regularly by the same customers. With the 
 
 29
 
 30 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 average dealer you will find that the why of a 
 good article, from his standpoint, is that it sells 
 well and he makes a profit on it. Underlying, 
 that, of course, must be the fact that it pleases 
 the user. But you will see that the dealer looks 
 at handling a product from a dollars and cents 
 standpoint while the consumer looks at the prod- 
 uct in another way. 
 
 Here is a point upon which too much emphasis 
 cannot be placed. The advertising plan can never 
 be too completely dovetailed with the selling plan. 
 The advertising man must keep himself at all 
 times in tune with the sales force and its plans 
 and efforts. The first thing the manufacturer of a 
 product does to get into a market is to decide 
 upon a selling plan. VThis selling plan must be 
 reflected in the advertising, if the advertising is to 
 succeed.^ You see now how essential it is for you 
 to know the product and the market as well as 
 the salesman does, and how valuable it is for you 
 to know the attitude of both dealer and consumer. 
 
 The salesman who calls upon a dealer in Morton 
 Grove, Illinois, and cannot persuade him to make 
 an initial purchase of gloves, for example, has 
 just as great a problem in that one instance as 
 you have in the whole advertising campaign. All 
 successes are made up of a number of little things. 
 All great volumes of business are built up of 
 individual sales. Millions of people go to the 
 movies every day, yet most of them spend only 
 a small sum at the door of the theater. It is the 
 great volume of these small sums which constitute 
 the total receipts. 
 
 In preparing your advertising, keep in mind
 
 DOVETAILING ADVERTISING WITH SELLING 31 
 
 most of all the "hard nuts" among the dealers and 
 consumers. When you prepare advertising which 
 will convince and sell them, the rest will take care 
 of itself, for you will have prepared something 
 which is sure to sell the others. 
 
 The advertising should not only reflect the 
 sales plan it should be the sales plan in print. 
 Then both salesman and advertisement will carry 
 the same story and the same impression to its 
 reader, whether he be dealer or consumer. 
 
 You will find that the sales plan practically 
 always is decided upon before the advertising 
 campaign is planned. In other words, the manu- 
 facturer of a product knows the territory in which 
 he wishes to sell that product and he and his sales 
 executives will have worked out a method of 
 covering the territory in question. It is manifestly 
 necessary that the advertising plans co-ordinate 
 with the sales plans. In fact, selling and advertis- 
 ing methods are generally considered together, 
 especially by the truly modern merchandiser. 
 
 1. Illustrate the difference between consumer 
 
 and dealer attitude. 
 2. How can you gather information as to the 
 
 attitude of the dealer? 
 3. Suggest how you would turn this information 
 
 to advantage. 
 4. Why should the advertising campaign reflect 
 
 the sales plan? 
 5. Which element among possible customers 
 
 should you try to convince first?
 
 32 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 6. In bringing out the advantages of your 
 product, how would you proceed to empha- 
 size the disadvantages of the competitive 
 product without seeming to be referring to 
 it?
 
 VIII 
 
 GETTING THE SELLING IDEA 
 
 There should be a central idea in the advertising 
 campaign. If it is to be the idea of quality, then 
 the copy and illustrations of the advertisements 
 must be so arranged as to suggest quality immedi- 
 ately. Look at an advertisement of some exclusive 
 jewelry house and you will at once be impressed 
 by the air of dignity and almost aloofness which 
 it wears. Contrast this with an advertisement 
 of a popular cigarette. The latter will be almost 
 effusive in its effort to convince you that as an 
 advertisement it is one of the best fellows in the 
 world and always was and always will be your 
 bosom friend. 
 
 Let us suppose that we are working on an auto- 
 mobile campaign. We have had conferences 
 with the advertising manager, sales manager, and 
 other executives of the automobile firm. At these 
 conferences it has been decided that the chief 
 selling feature of the car is a mechanical one, 
 that some distinctive feature of its engine enables 
 the saving of one-third the quantity of gasoline 
 ordinarily required to run such a car. Obviously 
 therefore, the one big thought to keep to the fore 
 all the time is this feature of gasoline saving. The 
 headlines of the advertisements, the opening 
 
 33
 
 34 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 paragraph of each piece of copy, will hammer 
 this point home all the time. 
 
 But, the point will be raised, there are many 
 possible buyers of automobiles who, while they 
 are greatly interested in this economical feature 
 are still more interested in knowing that they 
 are buying a really up-to-date car. Therefore, they 
 must be told that, in addition to the individual 
 and exclusive mechanical construction which effects 
 such a great saving in gasoline, they are getting a 
 car of artistic lines and splendid finish. The 
 depth and luxuriousness of the upholstery must 
 be emphasized, as must also the excellence of the 
 fittings. The advertising may almost be so 
 worked out that it will give the impression that, 
 in addition to securing an automobile of unusual 
 excellence throughout, the buyer is furthermore 
 getting, without paying anything extra for it all, 
 the engine feature which saves money for him 
 every time the wheels turn. 
 
 But, whatever be the product to be advertised, 
 get all the good points that may be said about it. 
 If it is already on the market study the methods 
 of the best salesmen. A man may be able to 
 write splendid, convincing advertisements and 
 yet be utterly unable to talk convincingly to a 
 dealer, or to go behind a counter and sell to the 
 consumer the very article he has advertised so 
 successfully. The advertising man must be an 
 interpreter of the needs and methods of others. 
 He must be able to put into printed word or 
 picture the clinching argument of the salesman as 
 well as to echo in some way the desire of the intend- 
 ing purchaser to own that which is advertised.
 
 GETTING THE SELLING IDEA 35 
 
 The best way to get the best idea of the best 
 salesman is to catch him off his guard, when he 
 does not know that he is "talking for publication." 
 Then he will show the human side of his work 
 and you will glean a clear understanding of the 
 simple means by which he masters the technicali- 
 ties of converting an uninterested dealer into an 
 enthusiastic pusher of the products that salesman 
 handles. 
 
 k Having decided upon the best selling points of 
 the article to be advertised, find out what are 
 the objections to it. No matter how good a 
 product may be, nor how great its sales, as has 
 been intimated, there will always be found people 
 who will have some objection to it. This resistance 
 on the part of the possible consumer may be 
 based on a predilection for a competitive product. 
 It may be, also, that there is some peculiarity 
 of taste, or flavor, or appearance, or some other 
 distinctive characteristic of the product which is 
 sure to come to the mind of the customer. It is 
 one function of advertising to overcome this 
 objection before it can be made. A manufacturer 
 of condensed milk, for instance, knowing that 
 many people wondered at the peculiar taste of his 
 product, advertised that taste as the flavor that 
 proved the milk had been sterilized and was 
 perfectly pure. A restaurant man, when practi- 
 cally everybody demanded music with their meals, 
 featured his restaurant as the one "with no 
 orchestral din." Examples might be multiplied, 
 but it will be seen that the very points which 
 can be used against an article if they are ignored 
 in the advertising, can be changed into selling
 
 36 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 arguments if they are properly emphasized or 
 deftly covered in the advertising. 
 
 1. How should the central idea in the cam- 
 paign be used? 
 
 2. How can you study the methods of the 
 salesman? 
 
 3. Should you know the possible objections to 
 the product? Why? 
 
 4. Select examples of advertising which meet 
 objections and overcome them in advance. 
 
 5. Visit some store where you are known and 
 find some product which is moving too 
 slowly. Study this product and its possi- 
 bilities. Find out from the dealer why, in 
 his opinion, it does not sell. With this data, 
 write a report recommending an advertising 
 and selling campaign that will remedy this 
 condition.
 
 IX 
 
 THE PROBLEM OF GETTING ATTENTION 
 
 An advertisement must attract attention, arouse 
 interest, advance an argument, and persuade to 
 action. 
 
 Attention may be attracted in various ways. 
 But in an advertisement we are confined to two 
 mediums of expression the printed word and 
 the printed picture. How is your advertisement, 
 therefore, to catch the eye of the reader? From 
 childhood up the average human being is interested 
 in pictures. Yet this very fact dulls his interest 
 in pictures, to the extent that his eye is not 
 held by a picture that is simply a picture. If we 
 'hope to gain the attention of our reader by means 
 of a picture it must be one that is unusual enough 
 or beautiful enough to focus his attention. If it 
 be a good product that we are advertising, then 
 whenever possible we should show that product 
 in its most tempting guise. We eat three times a 
 day. Even after enjoying a hearty dinner the 
 average person is in a mood to think about things 
 to eat. He is willing to consider the next meal. 
 If a food can be so illustrated that everybody who 
 sees the advertisement will say: "I'd like to try 
 some of that," we may fairly admit that the 
 attention-problem has been solved. 
 
 37
 
 38 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 An article of women's dress can usually be 
 illustrated in a most appealing way. A glance 
 at the advertising pages of different publications 
 shows this. The big point to have in mind, 
 however, is to devise illustrations so that as nearly 
 as possible they really illustrate the article adver- 
 tised. That is, the illustrations should be made 
 so characteristic that whenever one of the adver- 
 tisements is seen the reader will at once identify 
 it as that of the individual firm. Examples are: 
 Onyx Hosiery, Van Raalte Veils, Munsing Under- 
 wear, Hart, Schaffner & Marx Clothing. 
 
 Accustomed as we are to seeing pictures, and 
 even keeping in mind the fact that long before we 
 are able to read we can and do understand what 
 a picture represents, we must remember that 
 words make the deepest impression upon us. 
 Therefore, we may attract attention very surely 
 by means of proper headlines. Twenty-five or 
 thirty years ago there was an epidemic of smart- 
 aleck headlining in advertising. The display 
 lines in an advertisement would be broken through 
 the text and made to read connectedly with the 
 body of the advertisement. Thus, the reader, 
 looking at a page in a magazine, would have his 
 "attention attracted" by reading some such re- 
 markable thing as "Was Your Grandmother 
 a Monkey?" This custom had its day simply 
 because at that time neither advertiser nor the 
 public had a true conception of the intent and 
 purpose of advertising. It was rather a vehicle 
 for smartness than a selling help. Just as the old 
 time salesman with his flashy clothes and his off- 
 color stories has gone into the discard to be
 
 THE PROBLEM OF GETTING ATTENTION 39 
 
 replaced by the serious-minded man who knows 
 his product and knows his firm and knows the 
 needs of his customers, so has the freak advertising 
 gone its way. Likewise the dull, stilted advertising 
 has had its day. 
 
 You can always get a man's attention by offering 
 to do something for him, or offering to show him 
 how he can be happier, how he can better himself. 
 If we were to say to a man: "You don't want to 
 buy a phonograph, do you?" we would at once 
 suggest "No" for an answer. But if we pre- 
 suppose that he knows a great deal about phono- 
 graphs, that the social position of his family 
 demands a phonograph of real beauty as well as 
 of mechanical excellence, and if our headline 
 intimates to him that his own sincere judgment 
 will be in favor of the Blank Machine, we will 
 get much further with him. An advertising 
 campaign setting forth the advantages of canned 
 fruits and vegetables used well displayed head- 
 lines telling that the first canned goods were put 
 up for Napoleon's army. That historical fact 
 jolted the dormant attention of the reader at 
 once. He saw Napoleon planning his great 
 campaigns and depending on cans of corn and 
 beans and peaches to help him win. There are 
 many advertisements of razors and shaving soaps. 
 The first successful safety razor was blazoned to 
 the possible user by the alluring promise of " No 
 Honing, No Stropping." If you desire to instill 
 human interest into advertising a shaving soap 
 or a razor, get down your history and read how 
 Alexander the Great inaugurated the custom of 
 shaving. Historical characters are always interest-
 
 40 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 ing and always attract attention in an advertise- 
 ment. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 1. What is the first thing an advertisement 
 must do? 
 
 2. Why do pictures always attract attention? 
 
 3. How can you put human interest into an 
 advertisement ? 
 
 4. Select specimens of advertising which have 
 great attention value, and point out their 
 strength in this respect. 
 
 5. Select some advertisements which in your 
 opinion lack attention value and selling im- 
 pulse. Write a criticism of them, telling 
 why they are at fault and showing how you 
 would revise them to eliminate the weak- 
 nesses.
 
 X 
 
 METHODS OF CREATING INTEREST 
 
 The heading of an advertisement is much like 
 the title of a story. Kipling is a master at devising 
 titles. "The Man Who Would be King" arouses 
 our interest and attracts our attention, for example, 
 much more than if it were "An Episode in India." 
 "Barrack Room Ballads," as the title for a book 
 of poems, whets one's curiosity. It brings up a 
 mental picture of a long barracks-room, with 
 jovial soldiers lounging about and blending their 
 voices in song. It has color and life in it. If that 
 book had been called "A Book of Indian Poems" 
 it would not have taken such a hold on the public. 
 
 One of the prominent magazines published an 
 article about a man who has been a cripple all 
 his life ; it tells how this man realized his ambitions 
 and made a success of himself. If the magazine 
 had featured the story as "The Story of a Cripple" 
 it might have attracted the attention of a few 
 sympathetic souls, but when it was blazoned on 
 the cover as "A Wonder Story of Will Power" 
 it grew into something different and greater. 
 Similarly, a magazine article entitled "A Man Who 
 Has Loaned Millions to Other People" puts the 
 glamour of romance about a narrative of a man 
 who organized a new kind of savings banks. 
 
 41
 
 42 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 White space will attract attention. A proper 
 margin of white space about an advertisement 
 emphasizes the headlines and the text. 
 
 Interest can only be aroused by sincerity. 
 Interest must be cumulative. Notice how a 
 public speaker holds his audience. He does not 
 crowd his climaxes ; he does not utilize his strongest 
 points first of all. He begins by attracting the 
 attention of his audience. He opens his address 
 with a statement with which the audience will 
 either agree or disagree. If possible he gets 
 the sympathy of his audience. His next line of 
 thought will be something that increases the 
 interest of his hearers. If he is earnest, if he is 
 sincere, his earnestness and sincerity become 
 contagious. An audience soon loses interest in a 
 speaker who is obviously not wholly sincere, not 
 interested in his own argument. Similarly a 
 reader discerns very quickly when a writer is 
 "writing against space." And once you lose the 
 interest of a reader you lose that reader that 
 possible customer. 
 
 The greatest interest of all is self-interest. If 
 you can plan and word your advertisement so 
 that it is apparently written from the reader's 
 side it will hold his attention. He will feel that 
 it is a sympathetic kind of advertisement, that 
 it has his welfare at heart. A manufacturer of 
 typewriters was planning an advertising campaign. 
 He was eager to get away from the beaten path, 
 to avoid talking about cams and ratchets and cog- 
 wheels and type bars. He reasoned that the buyer 
 and user of a typewriter was not necessarily a 
 trained mechanic, nor was he interested in
 
 METHODS OF CREATING INTEREST 43 
 
 mechanical specifications. He desired a real selling 
 thought embodied in his advertising, and it must 
 be a selling thought that was obviously in the 
 interest of the customer, for therein lay his great 
 opportunity of gaining the sympathy of his read- 
 ers. He evolved the idea of showing that his type- 
 writer was so well made that it would stand the 
 hardest usage and still be a good machine after 
 service of a year, or two years, or even three or 
 more years. His advertisements told that here 
 at last was a typewriter that did not need to be 
 bought with the definite understanding that it 
 would be taken in trade later on. With this idea 
 as the starting point it was possible to weave in 
 mechanical arguments without using mechanical 
 terms. Over and over this thought was expressed 
 in his advertising, and as a result of the campaign 
 his typewriter gained a prominence it had not en- 
 joyed before. He attracted attention, he aroused 
 interest, he argued persuasively, and he induced 
 action he made sales. 
 
 1. Why must the heading of an advertisement 
 
 awaken interest? 
 2. In what respect is the heading similar to 
 
 the title of a story? 
 
 3. What is the greatest interest of all? Why? 
 4. What is the value of white space? 
 5. How may you gain the sympathy of the 
 
 reader? 
 6. Select specimen advertisements that are 
 
 unique without being freakish.
 
 XI 
 
 REGULATING THE AMOUNT OF COPY 
 
 The question is often asked: How long should 
 an advertisement be? It has been argued that 
 all that can be told in any advertisement may be 
 expressed in a few terse sentences. An adver- 
 tisement should be like the story attributed to 
 Abraham Lincoln. It was said that he was 
 asked how long a man's legs should be. He 
 replied: "Long enough to reach from his body 
 to the ground." 
 
 An advertisement should be long enough to 
 tell its story. No longer and no shorter. If you 
 will imagine an advertisement as a salesman, 
 telling a stranger about a new product, you can 
 visualize the efforts of that salesman to attract 
 attention, to arouse interest, to present his argu- 
 ment, and to make the sale. A few terse sentences 
 will not suffice. If the salesman were to stand 
 before the customer and bark epigrammatic sen- 
 tences at him, the customer would be apt to turn 
 on his heel and seek a more pleasing conversa- 
 tionalist. On the other hand, if the salesman were 
 to drift into an interminable harangue, the cus- 
 tomer would be apt to excuse himself and go where 
 he would be given a chance at least to think, if 
 not to take a little part in the conversation himself. 
 
 45
 
 46 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 For this reason it is better to avoid trying to 
 teli it all in one advertisement. Selling an auto- 
 mobile, for example, is not a matter of getting 
 the prospect's check on his first visit. Patience, 
 the emphasizing of a different quality or feature 
 each time the prospective customer is in the 
 sales room, is the good salesman's method. 
 
 Analyzing the product and its possible market 
 brings out many good selling points, each of which 
 may well be selected as the subject for an indivi- 
 dual advertisement. In time it will be found 
 that one or two of these are the best selling points. 
 Then they will be used as the keynotes and the 
 other points woven in with them. A phonograph, 
 for instance, may be advertised because of its 
 tonal quality. But in time this emphasis will be 
 found to be losing its force. Then the advertising 
 will be changed to bring out the beauty of the 
 cabinet, showing that the musical charm of the 
 instrument is receiving a housing in keeping with 
 its superiority; and so on, point by point. There 
 are few articles which can not offer at least ten 
 good points subjects for separate advertise- 
 ments. 
 
 You must consider the people who are to buy 
 the article you are advertising. In writing adver- 
 tisements of gloves, we may say, you will use a 
 different argument to persuade a woman to pur- 
 chase a fine dress glove than you would to induce 
 a man to buy a working glove. 
 
 In the one case you would appeal to woman's 
 natural love of beauty. You would show how 
 the glove enhanced the natural charm of her hand, 
 how it gave her the finishing touch of being well-
 
 REGULATING THE AMOUNT OF COPY 47 
 
 groomed. You would mention the fact that the 
 gloves are the last to be put on, that they either 
 make or mar the costume. Then you would tell 
 how carefully these gloves are made, how exactly 
 they are stitched, how they have been designed, 
 perhaps, by some eminent glove-artist in* Paris, 
 and so on. And you would never forget to impress 
 her with the fact that these gloves bear the seal 
 of the latest fashion. 
 
 But with the work glove you would go about 
 your task in another way. You would show how 
 ruggedly it is made, how stoutly it is stitched. 
 You would tell how long wear and great durability 
 are made into it. You would tell how well it fits 
 the hand, and how it really helps to do better 
 work because it supports the muscles of the hand 
 when they are weary. Your imagination would 
 have you at work, out in the cold, wearing a pair 
 of those gloves and doing the best day's work 
 you ever accomplished because of that fact. 
 
 You would make the woman feel that here was 
 somebody who was accustomed to moving in 
 the best society and knew what was the exactly 
 correct mode in dress gloves; you would make the 
 man feel that here was somebody who knew what 
 hard work was and who knew through experience 
 how to select a glove that would lighten that 
 hard work. 
 
 Some people, in writing advertisements, either 
 accidentally or purposely omit asking the reader 
 to buy the article advertised. Now, the end 
 and aim of an advertisement is to sell, not just 
 to get the reader mildly interested, so that some 
 time when he is down town he will, if he happens
 
 48 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 to think of it, go into a store and ask to be shown 
 whatever it was that was advertised. Your 
 advertisement should convince the reader that he 
 is going to be more than satisfied with his purchase, 
 and should put him in a purchasing mood. 
 Often a writer will think it really beneath his 
 dignity to say to his reader: "Please buy this." 
 He feels as if this puts him behind a counter, 
 serving whoever comes down the aisle. Yet that 
 is just what he is doing, and if he believes in 
 himself, and believes in the goods he is advertising, 
 and believes in the manufacturer of those goods, 
 he is performing a true service when he leads his 
 reader to make the purchase. 
 
 If you are writing an advertisement for a 
 kitchen cabinet or a refrigerator, you will not 
 write it as you would one for a piano or for a 
 library table. Pianos and library tables have 
 their elements of beauty; they are to be seen as 
 well as to be used. They are in the higher sphere 
 of life. But the refrigerator is not always a spotless 
 thing of beauty, holding fresh fruits and meats 
 and eggs and other appetizing things. Nor is the 
 kitchen cabinet always standing, immaculate, 
 against the wall, its door glistening and its shelves 
 arrayed with shining jars and glittering knives 
 and things. There are days when both refrigerator 
 and cabinet must be cleaned. A maker of refriger- 
 ators and a maker of kitchen cabinets kept this 
 in mind in their advertisements. They told how 
 the refrigerator would keep things fresh and 
 sweet, and how the cabinet would save thousands 
 of steps and lighten the work in the kitchen. 
 But they also told, and told very emphatically,
 
 REGULATING THE AMOUNT OF COPY 49 
 
 how easy it was to scrub and wash and clean the 
 refrigerator and the cabinet. They told of smooth 
 surfaces no square panels or corners to catch 
 and hold dust or dirt and grease. They put a 
 "Saturday-night clean-up" atmosphere into their 
 advertisements, and they convinced the women 
 who read them that they had at heart the interests 
 of. the women who had to work at keeping house. 
 And their campaigns succeeded. 
 
 1. How can you decide upon the length 01 an 
 
 advertisement ? 
 2. Should you try to cover all the selling points 
 
 in one piece of copy? 
 3. How would you select the subjects for a 
 
 series of advertisements? 
 4. Should you adapt the style of your copy to 
 
 the individuality of the possible buyer? 
 5. Select specimen advertisements which have 
 
 individual appeals. 
 6. Select any article with which you are 
 
 familiar, and write a report showing how 
 
 you would bring out its advantages in a 
 
 way to convince the public concerning it.
 
 XII 
 
 THE LINE OF HUMAN APPEAL 
 
 You must put yourself in the position of the 
 buyer as well as of the seller. You must not 
 only know how the retailer looks upon the article 
 you are advertising; you must assume the attitude 
 of the individual to whom the retailer wants to 
 sell that article. And there is no quicker way of 
 gaining attention than by showing that you 
 know and realize the bothers and worries and 
 troubles that other people have troubles from 
 which the product you are writing about is de- 
 signed to free them. This, of course, applies to 
 such wares as refrigerators, kitchen cabinets, 
 vacuum sweepers, window cleaners, washing pow- 
 ders, washing machines, and other labor-saving 
 and work-shortening appliances and products. 
 
 Study the individuality of the advertiser and 
 his organization. Keep your own individuality 
 out of the proposition. Make each campaign 
 you work on express the individuality, the person- 
 ality, of the advertiser. That personality may 
 be of one man, or the combined personalities of 
 many men, but it exists, and must exist in all 
 establishments that succeed. You will note that 
 successful products have a personality. It identi- 
 fies them as coming from a certain concern. So 
 
 51
 
 52 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 should the advertising of that concern be its 
 product. You should dig, and ask questions, and 
 observe, and study, until you can put your finger 
 on the personality of the organization the spirit 
 which actuates it in its dealings. It will then be 
 easy for you to reflect that personality in the 
 advertising you prepare, and the advantage in 
 this is that both advertising and product will be 
 found to harmonize. Your work will also be 
 easier, for the moment you begin work on an 
 advertisement your imagination will begin to 
 project the personality you have discovered. 
 Your own work will be better, for your advertise- 
 ments will be free from an undesirable sameness 
 in style. 
 
 Before actually starting to work on an advertise- 
 ment or on an advertising campaign, it is best to 
 ascertain exactly what line of thought will contain 
 the greatest element of appeal to the average person. 
 We may, and should, divide humanity into 
 classes. One class will desire a certain grade, 
 or quality, of merchandise; others will be suited 
 with other kinds. But each class is governed by 
 the law of averages; and what appeals to one 
 should appeal to all. 
 
 There is nothing that one man sells and another 
 man buys that does not have its angle of human 
 appeal. 
 
 It must meet a human need, satisfy a human 
 desire, or gratify a human whim. 
 
 A musical comedy gratifies the very human 
 wish for color and sound; a drama appeals -to 
 human sentiment; a story, to human understand- 
 ing; and a sermon, to human conviction.
 
 THE LINE OF HUMAN APPEAL 53 
 
 The successful advertisement approaches the 
 reader along the same lines. 
 
 As we have said, there is no business organiza- 
 tion that does not have in it and of it an indivi- 
 duality, whether of one man or a composite 
 of many men. 
 
 The greater this individuality the greater the 
 success of the business organization. Advertising 
 is the expression of this characteristic of this 
 human appeal. 
 
 You cannot submerge or suppress it ; advertising 
 to be good, must extend the personality of the 
 concern to its prospective customers. 
 
 It is just as much a part of the policy and the 
 operation of the concern as is its product. 
 i Good advertising is virtually a product of the 
 ' house it advertises. It serves the customers of 
 that house. 
 
 i Good advertising is good nature. Good nature 
 is the greatest human appeal on earth; not "jolly- 
 ing," not lightness of verbiage, but the good 
 nature of sincerity, of friendliness. 
 
 That sort of advertising makes people glad to 
 read it. If a man can write that kind of copy, 
 people are always going to stop at the page holding 
 his advertisement, and stop with pleasant anticipa- 
 tion. You can read an advertisement and come 
 pretty near telling what kind of treatment the 
 advertiser will give you. His individuality can- 
 not be kept out of his advertising, if it is his 
 advertising. 
 
 Advertising should be the advance agent of 
 satisfaction. It represents the good faith of the 
 house and must be as trustworthy and as con-
 
 54 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 fidence-begetting as the guarantee that goes with 
 the goods. Some people buy things because they 
 need them; some buy things because they are 
 curious to know about them; some buy things 
 because somebody else buys them; but all buy 
 things because they want them.' 
 
 Good advertising creates the want; good mer- 
 chandising meets it. 
 
 Successful advertising is interwoven with suc- 
 cessful merchandising, and vice versa. The suc- 
 cessful house, large or small, is the one that makes 
 a human appeal, day in and day out, to its possible 
 and its present customers. 
 
 The advertiser who believes in himself and in his 
 goods inspires other people to share his belief. 
 
 The man who writes his copy approaches him 
 as do his potential customers. It is for him to 
 acquire the advertiser's enthusiastic belief. If 
 he does that he cannot fail to show it in the 
 copy. This kind of belief projects itself in simple, 
 strong, earnest copy which commands the con- 
 fidence of the reader and convinces him. 
 
 That is human appeal contagious belief. 
 
 Human nature is the same in all phases of life. 
 There has to be, there is, a human side to every 
 advertising problem. Nine times out of ten it is 
 the individuality of the organization whose product 
 is to be advertised. 
 
 Put that individuality, that sincere, earnest 
 belief, into it, and there is a natural and willing 
 response. 
 
 A good advertisement follows the line of human 
 appeal, which is by way of the heart and mind.
 
 THE LINE OF HUMAN APPEAL 55 
 
 1. Why should you express the individuality 
 of the advertiser? 
 
 2. How can you find the personality of an 
 institution? 
 
 3. What is human appeal? 
 
 4. What kind of an impression must good 
 advertising create? 
 
 5. Select specimen advertisements which im- 
 press you with the character of the house 
 they represent. 
 
 6. Select several advertisements which lack 
 human appeal, and revise them so that in 
 your opinion they possess this quality.
 
 XIII 
 
 VARIED FORMS OF ADVERTISING 
 
 A reasonably large advertising campaign will 
 comprehend all or several of the following mediums : 
 
 Newspapers 
 
 Magazines 
 
 Weeklies 
 
 Farm Papers 
 
 Trade Papers 
 
 Billboards 
 
 Painted Signs 
 
 Theater Programs 
 
 Dealer Campaigns 
 
 Direct-by-mail literature 
 
 Catalogues 
 
 Booklets 
 
 Newspaper Advertising includes both national 
 and local campaigns. The large general advertiser 
 who uses magazines and other periodicals, as well 
 as outdoor and street-car advertising, to exploit 
 his wares, rounds out his campaign with schedules 
 in the newspapers in important cities, or in 
 sections where he plans intensive selling work. 
 Examples of the use of newspaper space for 
 national advertising are, automobiles, tires, heat- 
 ing plants, foods, ready-to-wear clothing, shoes, 
 
 57
 
 58 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 cigars, cigarettes and so on. Local merchants also 
 use the newspaper columns for their own advertis- 
 ing, such as, department stores, groceries, clothing 
 stores, and other retail establishments, as well as 
 individuals. 
 
 In this country there are a large number of 
 foreign language newspapers. These are written 
 and printed in the language of their readers, who 
 may be regarded as the first generation of emigra- 
 tion. For these it is customary to prepare the 
 advertisements in English, and then the foreign 
 language papers will have them translated into the 
 language of the publication. Copy prepared 
 for these papers should be written very simply, 
 with no attempt whatever to incorporate slang, 
 colloquialisms, idioms or popular American phrases. 
 It is impossible to translate these into other 
 languages so that they will have the strength, 
 or even the meaning they convey in English. 
 This observation applies also to advertisements 
 which are to be translated for use in magazines 
 printed in other languages. Many American 
 advertisers use space in the magazines of South 
 America and Central America. These, in the 
 main, are printed in Spanish and Portuguese. 
 The rule to follow in the preparation of any and 
 all copy which is to be translated is, to write it 
 in the simplest form, avoiding all long words and 
 all colloquialisms. 
 
 Magazine Advertising we shall consider to include 
 space used both in monthly and weekly publi- 
 cations of a general circulation. There is a 
 tremendous quantity of such advertising. Esti- 
 mates of its volume run into the hundreds of
 
 VARIED FORMS OF ADVERTISING 59 
 
 millions of dollars a year. The space used varies 
 in size from as little as an inch single column to 
 a full page. The price charged for the space 
 varies with the circulation and standing of the 
 publication. 
 
 Farm Paper Advertising has shown a great 
 development and improvement in recent years. 
 At one time it was confined almost exclusively to 
 advertisements that made no pretense toward 
 artistic appearance or neatness of display. It 
 also consisted almost entirely of mail order 
 propositions, each advertisement being filled as 
 full of language as the space would hold. This 
 was done on the theory that the farmer had 
 nothing to do during the long evenings except 
 to sit and read. 
 
 Today many of the advertising campaigns in 
 farm publications rank in appearance with 
 those published anywhere else. Also the 
 variety of products advertised in farm papers 
 is much larger than before, although of course 
 the special advantage of the agricultural press 
 in reaching possible buyers of farm implements 
 and other things needed in farming is recognized. 
 The rapid development of rural communities, 
 the introduction of the inter-urban trolley car, 
 the automobile, the telephone, the electric lighting 
 system for the farm all these have tended to 
 change the nature of farm-paper advertising, 
 as well as to change the attitude of many 
 advertisers toward residents in agricultural 
 districts. 
 
 Trade Paper Advertising This is supplemental 
 advertising, in the main. It appears in the publi-
 
 60 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 cations devoted specifically to the interests of 
 dealers in certain lines of business, or of companies 
 engaged in particular industries. Although this 
 phase of a campaign is usually called "trade 
 paper," still a distinction must be made between 
 publications which are strictly edited for the 
 dealer, such as, grocers' weeklies, druggist's 
 periodicals, and so on; and publications edited in 
 the interest of certain lines of industry, such as 
 those appealing to the iron and steel industry and 
 allied lines. Too often copy for these publications 
 is not given the thought and time it deserves. 
 Advertisements intended for them should be 
 prepared after proper study of the magazine, 
 and every effort should be made to create some- 
 thing that will have a distinct and special appeal 
 to the readers. It is better to differentiate between 
 the dealer publications and the industrial publi- 
 cations as "trade papers" and "class publications." 
 Street-car Cards, Outdoor Advertising Cards 
 displayed in street cars, posters placed on bill- 
 boards, painted walls, electric signs and other 
 forms of outdoor advertising depend upon eye- 
 attraction for their value. They are supplemental 
 to magazine or newspaper advertising; they serve 
 as reminders. With this form of advertising 
 should be classed what is often called dealer's 
 helps cards and other advertising matter intended 
 for display in windows or inside stores. These 
 rely upon picturization of the product, or upon a 
 pleasing or striking picture, together with a brief 
 bit of copy, and proper display of the name of 
 the goods featured. In planning an advertising 
 campaign the expert always endeavors to have
 
 VARIED FORMS OF ADVERTISING 61 
 
 this section of it harmonize well with the style 
 of the other features of the campaign. 
 
 Dealer's Campaigns Often an advertiser will 
 prepare a series of small advertisements intended 
 to be published in the local papers over the name 
 of the dealer or representative of the manufacturer. 
 As a general thing, the dealer is offered the entire 
 campaign, or as much of it as he desires. He can 
 use mats and have his local paper make stereotypes 
 from them; or the manufacturer will provide him 
 with electrotypes; or he can have the local paper 
 set up the advertisements. In all cases his 
 signature is appended often the electrotype is 
 mortised to permit such insertion. Such a cam- 
 paign, while supplemental, must be so written as 
 to benefit the dealer locally as well as to sell the 
 goods which are given publicity. 
 
 1. Name the different advertising mediums 
 that may be used. 
 
 2. Give a survey of the newspaper advertising 
 field. 
 
 3. Tell something about magazine advertising. 
 
 4. Should farm-paper' advertising have a 
 different tone from other forms? 
 
 5. Secure specimens of "dealer advertising" 
 and study their preparation. 
 
 6. Go among dealers and ask those with whom 
 you are acquainted what kind of "dealers 
 helps" they find most efficient. With this as a 
 base, write a report recommending a dealers' 
 help campaign for. any product you select.
 
 XIV 
 
 DIRECT APPEAL THE HOUSE ORGAN MAIL ORDER 
 
 Direct-by-Mail Advertising This is the most 
 expensive form of publicity, but often it is most 
 productive. It consists of personally addressed 
 letters or printed matter, mailed direct to the 
 possible customer. The list of names used for 
 this purpose is selected with the utmost care. 
 Sometimes a direct mail campaign is used in 
 connection with both national and local advertis- 
 ing. Letters thus mailed are called "form letters." 
 They are printed or mimeographed in imitation 
 typewriting, often so excellently as to defy detec- 
 tion. The name and address of the recipient 
 are filled in on a typewriter using the same face of 
 type as the body of the letter, and with a ribbon 
 of the same color of ink. Booklets, circulars, 
 catalogues, and other material of this sort are 
 comprehended in direct-by-mail work, although 
 often they are not sent out except upon request. 
 A series of letters and booklets or circulars is 
 called a "follow-up" system. These letters are 
 deftly worded and carefully planned. For ex- 
 ample, they may be intended to sell a set of books. 
 The first letter will extol the books, and endeavor 
 to convince the reader that one of his standing 
 in the community owes it to himself to possess 
 
 63
 
 64 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 such a set. If this evokes no response, Letter 
 number two will follow at a stated time. It will 
 express surprise that no attention has been paid 
 to the first letter, and make a more attractive 
 offer. Thus the series will go on, until the last 
 letter makes a proposition that represents the 
 bottom price or the most liberal offer. If this 
 one does not sell the customer, his name is checked 
 off the list. 
 
 In a more dignified way, follow-up letters are 
 used in the interest of automobiles, tires, musical 
 instruments, foodstuffs, and many other things. 
 Direct-by-mail campaigns are also used to interest 
 dealers themselves in handling products. Often 
 a part of an advertising campaign will be repro- 
 duced on a "broadside," to show the dealer how 
 the manufacturer is trying to arouse public interest 
 in his wares. A "broadside" is a large sheet of 
 paper, which is printed on both sides, and is folded 
 into a compass small enough for mailing. Because 
 of the handling it receives it must be printed on a 
 tough paper, and paper makers have developed 
 paper which is especially intended for broadside 
 use. 
 
 Almost every advertising campaign is supple- 
 mented to some degree by literature to be mailed 
 to the dealer. There are many details which 
 should be observed in the preparation of such 
 matter, particularly broadsides and folders which 
 are mailed without envelopes. 
 
 A very important phase of direct mail matter 
 is that of leaving the right space on the outside, 
 or address side, of a piece of third-class mail. 
 
 The post office will not any longer allow an
 
 DIRECT APPEAL HOUSE ORGAN MAIL ORDER 65 
 
 "all over design." There must be an addressing 
 space 3J/2 inches wide from the right-hand side 
 of the mailing piece, with 1J4 inches from the top 
 and 2 inches in depth from the bottom. The 
 necessity for this is readily apparent when you 
 recognize that space must be left at the right-hand 
 corner for the postage stamp and legible post 
 marking, and in the lower right-hand corner for 
 name and address, with particulars as to for- 
 warding, etc. 
 
 Of course, if your circular when folded is 
 only 1" x 4" in size, this does not give you very 
 much room for display. Here is a very good 
 formula which a person may use when in doubt 
 as to what to put on the outside of a mailing 
 folder: If you have a product absolutely different 
 from anything else on the market, go ahead and 
 say so on the outside of your mailing piece. But 
 should you be attempting to market something 
 which has a tremendous amount of competition 
 something which is in nearly every respect similar 
 to that of nineteen or twenty competitors then 
 bring in the curiosity appeal, so as to get people 
 to open your circular and read its import- 
 ant message. 
 
 House Organs The writing, editing, and print- 
 ing of a house organ is an advertising department 
 in itself. Properly handled, the house organ can 
 be made one of the strongest assets of the company 
 issuing it. It is a personal message to its reader. 
 The reader may be a customer or a prospective 
 customer of the house which publishes it, or he 
 may be an employee. In these days of welfare 
 work, of selling the institution to its employees,
 
 66 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 the house organ may be made the most potent 
 factor possible. An inter-organization house 
 organ, which circulates solely among the employees, 
 shows them that they are all human beings. 
 Many a man or woman has worked alongside 
 some one for months, until some little human 
 touch has discovered to him that his companion 
 in work is after all human, that he has human 
 hopes and human happiness, as well as human 
 fears and problems. The personal touch of the 
 house organ awakens a new interest in his work 
 and inspires a friendly cooperation with his fellow 
 workers. In these days of systematized depart- 
 mental work, it also gives him a knowledge of 
 the big purpose of the concern for which he works 
 sells him on the importance and value of his 
 own work as it contributes to the excellence of 
 the product. 
 
 The first house organ in this country, or at 
 least the oldest one in point of publication life, 
 is The Mechanic, which was started in 1847 by 
 H. B. Smith Machine Co., of Smithville, N. J. 
 But it has not been published regularly. The 
 oldest continuous house organ publications are 
 The New Idea, published by Frederick Stearns & 
 Co., the large drug house of Detroit, and The 
 Fall River Line Journal, issued by the New Eng- 
 land Navigation Company. Both of these began 
 regular appearance in 1878. 
 
 Printers Ink used to be the house organ of 
 George P. Rowell & Company; System Magazine 
 was originally the house organ of a filing cabinet 
 firm ; The Dodge Idea grew from a house organ into 
 a technical magazine.
 
 DIRECT APPEAL HOUSE ORGAN MAIL ORDER 67 
 
 Some companies publish two or three house 
 organs, one for their customers, and the others 
 for department heads and executives, or for the 
 body of employees. Every issue of a house organ 
 should contain an expression of belief. Some 
 people call this "inspirational" material. And so 
 it is. But the difficulty is to make it inspirational 
 and keep it so. The opportunity to let it run over 
 is too great to be avoided sometimes. 
 
 The same principle applies to house organs as 
 to all other kinds of advertising. There is no 
 business, large or small, of greater or lesser degree 
 of importance, that has not its angle of interest. 
 It would not be a business if that interest did not 
 exist. Find the interesting thing, tell it, and then 
 put it into type or pictures, and print it in an 
 interest-inviting way. 
 
 Mail Order Advertising In a sense, mail-order 
 advertising is of the same class as direct-by-mail 
 efforts. However, in the general acceptance of 
 the term, mail-order work applies to advertise- 
 ments which are intended to bring a cash order 
 by way of reply. It is said that every other letter 
 carried in the mails of this country is an advertising 
 letter, and that a catalogue or booklet is carried 
 in the mails for every periodical that is carried. 
 When a mail order advertisement does not bring 
 the cash order it does bring a request for a catalogue 
 or other literature that is offered, and such a request 
 opens the way for "follow-up" letters as well. 
 Mail-order advertising includes a wide range of 
 things, from the small, crowded one-inch single- 
 column offers of cheap "novelties" to full-page 
 offers of different business courses, mind improve-
 
 68 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 ment courses, memory cures and the like. In 
 merchandizing there are several very large mail 
 order houses, selling everything from household 
 goods to men's and women's wear. These con- 
 cerns rely upon their advertisements in certain 
 publications which have great circulations in the 
 territories from which mail orders are most numer- 
 ous, as well as upon their large catalogues, which 
 contain descriptions and prices of their entire line. 
 Study of successful mail-order advertisements 
 will show you that the principal arguments are 
 often repeated several times, although in different 
 ways, in the same space, and that the money- 
 saving idea is given due emphasis. In cases where 
 the object of the advertisement is to secure an 
 inquiry, then the advice to "Send no money," 
 "Don't send us a penny," and so on, will be 
 played up strong. 
 
 In the advertising field, a man who can write 
 good mail order advertising is generally one who 
 specializes on that line exclusively. His work 
 must bridge the gap that is ordinarily filled by the 
 wholesale salesman, the retail dealer and the 
 dealer's salesmen. Not every copy writer can 
 turn out successful mail order copy. It is a field 
 by itself, and proficiency in it requires first the 
 ability and the inclination for such work, and 
 second, the knowledge which only comes through 
 experience. 
 
 1. Prepare a series of letters to prospective 
 
 customers. 
 2. Give an outline of direct-by-mail campaigns.
 
 DIRECT APPEAL HOUSE ORGAN MAIL ORDER 69 
 
 3. Give an outline of house organ work. 
 
 Secure different house organs and study 
 
 them. 
 4. What is the general form of mail-order 
 
 advertising? 
 
 What is its purpose? 
 5. Select specimens of mail-order advertising 
 
 of various kinds. 
 6. Make a chart showing how you would plan 
 
 a direct-by-mail campaign that will dovetail 
 
 with house organ work and stimulate the 
 
 dealer to co-operative interest.
 
 XV 
 
 DETERMINING THE SIZE OF THE CAMPAIGN 
 
 How much space may be used in each medium, 
 or how much money may be expended in any one 
 channel, depends, of course, upon the size of the 
 advertising appropriations. This, in turn, must be 
 determined by the present volume of business 
 done by the advertiser, as well as by the volume 
 he hopes to do. Some advertisers determine the 
 amount of their advertising appropriations by 
 assessing a certain sum for each article manu- 
 factured, or for each case of goods. Thus, an 
 automobile maker may decide to use twenty- five 
 dollars for each car he will make during the 
 year. If his output is to be ten thousand cars, 
 his appropriation will be $250,000. A manu- 
 facturer of canned goods will decide to use twenty- 
 five cents for each case he produces. Each case 
 will contain no doubt two dozen cans of his product, 
 which means that he will spend about a penny 
 per can. If his output is two million cases, his 
 appropriation will be half a million dollars. 
 
 The ordinary individual, unversed in advertising 
 expenses and methods, often has the idea that 
 advertising is a huge expense and that he pays a 
 goodly percentage of it. The estimates given 
 in this paragraph are purposely made high. In 
 
 71
 
 72 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 the case of a glove manufacturer, it was figured 
 out that the actual advertising expense on his 
 output was a total of one cent for each five pairs 
 of gloves, whether they were children's mittens 
 at fifty cents per pair, or automobile driving gloves 
 at fifty dollars a pair. Naturally, the greater the 
 volume of sales, the lower becomes the cost of 
 advertising the individual article. 
 
 Given the appropriation, it then becomes neces- 
 sary to plan the campaign, to decide how much 
 space will be used in the different mediums, 
 and how many mediums will be used. This must 
 be determined by a knowledge of the market 
 conditions, by analyzing the prospects for the 
 goods in different sections, by ascertaining the 
 strength of the competitive lines, and by finding 
 out just where and when the active selling efforts 
 are to take place. If a manufacturer is not cover- 
 ing the entire country, but is going to put on 
 selling campaigns in certain sections, obviously he 
 should not indulge in national advertising, but 
 should concentrate his efforts in the territories 
 wherein he expects to secure his . distribution. 
 This means localized campaigns, and for these he 
 will have to use the newspapers in those terri- 
 tories, or the street cars, or billboards, or all of 
 them. 
 
 1. Upon what does the size of space to be used 
 depend? 
 
 2. How is the size of an advertising appropria- 
 tion generally determined?
 
 DETERMINING THE SIZE OF THE CAMPAIGN 73 
 
 3. Does good advertising add to the selling 
 price? 
 
 4. How would you go about planning a cam- 
 paign? 
 
 5. When is a national campaign justifiable? 
 When a local campaign? 
 
 6. Investigate the status of any product you 
 select, among dealers and consumers. Ask 
 regarding both national and local advertis- 
 ing, and determine which is best for that 
 particular product. Write a report embody- 
 ing your findings.
 
 XVI 
 
 LAYING OUT YOUR ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 First let us consider the preparation of news- 
 paper advertising. Keep in mind that the same 
 principles which apply to it govern the preparation 
 of magazine advertisements. (The term, "maga- 
 zine-advertisements," maybe construed as mean- 
 ing those for any other publications than news- 
 papers.) 
 
 Forget for the time being anything that you 
 are going to say in your newspaper advertisement. 
 Forget even the things or the people that are to be 
 shown in the illustration, if an illustration is to 
 be used at all. Spread a page of the newspaper 
 before you and study it. Unless your advertise- 
 ment is to o'ccupy the full page, you must so plan 
 it as to enable it to dominate the page if possible. 
 Naturally, an advertisement that is only three or 
 four inches long and one column in width cannot 
 dominate the page. An advertisement fifteen 
 inches long and five columns wide may be so 
 planned as to "own" the page. In the same way 
 an advertisement ten inches long and four columns 
 wide can be so arranged as to have great attention 
 value. You may bear in mind that space in news- 
 papers and magazines as a rule is not sold by the 
 inch but by the line. There are fourteen lines 
 
 75
 
 76 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 to the inch. Thus an advertiser can buy one 
 hundred lines of space, which is a trifle over seven 
 and one-half inches, and so on. Methods of 
 measuring space are given in detail on another 
 page. 
 
 Due consideration must be given to the shape 
 of your advertisement. An awkward or un- 
 wieldy shape will repel the eye. A sense of pro- 
 portion is a valuable asset in determining how 
 much space to use and how the shape shall be 
 apportioned. If you are using a full page, then, 
 of course, your problem is solved. You can put 
 your advertisement on that full page, and there 
 you are. But even then you should consider 
 how your type-masses and picture-masses are 
 to be proportioned. The advertisement must have 
 balance. The eye can take in just so much at 
 one time, and, for some reason or other, human 
 nature is so constituted that the eye accepts some 
 shapes more readily than it does others. A long, 
 narrow column, the full length of the page, more 
 than fills the eye. You have to take it in by 
 sections, if you are holding the newspaper or 
 magazine at the ordinary reading distance. Simi- 
 larly, a narrow space spread across the page like 
 a long strip may attract attention because of its 
 novelty, yet the eye cannot read it easily. You 
 get the feeling of wagging your head from side 
 to side as you try to take it all in. 
 
 There is what is sometimes called "the golden 
 rectangle," or "the golden space." Artists say 
 it is the precise proportion that appeals most 
 to the eye the arrangement which invites the 
 vision. This is any space designed in the pro-
 
 LAYING OUT YOUR ADVERTISEMENT 77 
 
 portion of 3 to 5. That is, it should be two-thirds 
 longer than it is wide. In other words, if your 
 advertisement is three columns wide, then the 
 perfect proportion would be achieved if in depth 
 it were five times the width of a column. It is 
 not always possible, nor even advisable, to lay 
 out an advertisement so that the space it shall 
 occupy shall be "the golden rectangle," but it is 
 always possible to plan your type-masses and 
 illustrations so that they may approach this 
 proportion. Not every advertisement follows this 
 rule, but it is worth while, as you observe and 
 study the advertising pages of different publica- 
 tions-, to notice how many of the most appealing 
 announcements conform in some degree to the 
 rule of "the golden space." 
 
 Let us say that we are to use a space of ten 
 inches on four columns for our newspaper adver- 
 tisement. This is almost a quarter of a page. 
 Reflect that a full page is a unit by itself and has 
 no competition. Our quarter page must have 
 every chance to be the chief object of interest 
 on the page. Therefore we will consider very 
 carefully the appearance of the other advertise- 
 ments which may appear alongside it or below it. 
 Also we will give thought to the way the reading 
 matter which may appear on the page shall help 
 to form a frame for our space. 
 
 Take your pencil and outline roughly the space 
 your advertisement will occupy. Now, forgetting 
 the details of the illustration and the language 
 of the headline and copy, and thinking of them 
 simply as so much black ink which is to form 
 spots or lines or blocks of matter in the space,
 
 78 FIRST. PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 determine how the space shall be filled. Study 
 the appearance of the newspaper in general, 
 and decide whether or not a border shall be used 
 around the advertisement. If so and quite prob- 
 ably you will decide to use one endeavor to 
 indicate how heavy the border shall be, and 
 whether it shall consist merely of one heavy rule, 
 or if it shall be an ornamental border. The 
 nature of the border will depend to a great extent 
 upon the nature of the product you are advertising. 
 If it is jewelry, an ornamental border is suggested 
 at once. If it is some piece of machinery, then a 
 simple rule border is best. 
 
 Inside the border we now have an expanse of 
 white space which we are to fill. Decide how much 
 white space shall be left inside the border as sup- 
 port for your advertisement. This white border 
 will serve in the same way as does a mat about a 
 framed picture. With your pencil indicate roughly 
 the position and the size of the illustration, if one 
 is to be used. Otherwise, indicate by heavy 
 markings the size and arrangement of your head- 
 lines. In a similar way block out the amount of 
 space that shall be devoted to type. Below this 
 a few more rough markings will indicate the 
 signature of the advertisement. 
 
 You will now have the crudest form of a "lay- 
 out." But in your own mind it will picture to 
 you the mass effect of the advertisement itself. 
 Your mental vision will picture the illustration, 
 the headlines, and the text. You will have this 
 crude diagram of the advertisement in the exact 
 position it is to occupy in final form. You will 
 be able to contrast its effect with everything
 
 LAYING OUT YOUR ADVERTISEMENT 79 
 
 else on the page, and to revise or correct it as 
 you please until you have brought it to the exact 
 appearance you desire. And all this you will have 
 accomplished without as yet having had a drawing 
 made, without having written a headline or any 
 part of the copy. You will not, in all probability, 
 achieve a perfect advertising lay-out on your first 
 effort. But this indicates how you should begin. 
 Always, before writing any advertisement, know 
 how that advertisement is going to look know 
 the effect the masses of type and illustrations 
 will have upon the eye of the reader. 
 
 All of this is not so intricate as it seems. These 
 principles apply to the planning of any advertise- 
 ment for any medium. The steps described are 
 those which you will find yourself taking uncon- 
 sciously as you begin mapping out a series of 
 advertisements for a campaign. It is a good plan, 
 also, to make an individual lay-out for each piece 
 of copy. Special lay-out sheets are available. 
 These are ruled and marked, so that space of any 
 size can be laid out. As you become proficient 
 you can "lay out" your space on any piece of paper 
 that is handy. With the individual lay-out before 
 you, you can determine at a glance the amount 
 of copy that can be used in each advertisement. 
 You can also determine the size of type that shall 
 be used for the headings and the body of the 
 advertisement. 
 
 1. What is the first thing to consider in making 
 
 your lay-out? 
 2. What is the "golden rectangle?"
 
 80 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 3. How can you "rough out" your advertise- 
 ment so that you may visualize it? 
 
 4. What is the value of this preliminary effort? 
 
 5. Make several rough lay-outs by the method 
 suggested. Do the same, using actual ad- 
 vertisements as your models. 
 
 6. Prepare a report on a supposititious cam- 
 paign, showing how you would harmonize 
 the magazine, newspaper and outdoor ad- 
 vertising with the dealers' literature and 
 other features.
 
 XVII 
 
 WORKING WITH THE ARTIST 
 
 When illustrations are to be used, the artist 
 makes a preliminary sketch, just as the copy 
 writer blocks out his space. First, the idea to be 
 embodied in the advertisement is decided upon, 
 then 'the artist illustrates that idea. He generally 
 makes several sketches for this purpose, all of 
 them very rough, and from them one is selected. 
 This he works up into a partly finished form in 
 pencil or crayon. This working drawing is given 
 the final O.K., and he then finishes it, either in 
 ink, or wash, or colors as desired. Sometimes 
 the drawing is made before the copy is written, 
 the copy writer being given the illustration and 
 expected to prepare an advertisement to fit it. 
 In the writer's experience this has never been a 
 satisfactory plan. It is much better to write the 
 copy first and then allow the artist to illustrate it. 
 Often in the preparation of the copy a sentence 
 or phrase will be written which will convey to 
 the artist the happiest idea. The writer of copy 
 should cultivate his artistic sense, for it is as 
 much to his advantage to be able to tell what 
 kind of picture should go with his copy as it is 
 to possess the intuitive faculty of appreciating 
 proper typographical display. 
 
 81
 
 82 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 The illustration used in an advertisement should 
 be an advertisement in itself. It occupies con- 
 siderable space, therefore it should tell its part 
 of the story. It is really successful when it is so 
 good that, if left alone, it carries an interesting 
 selling message. There are occasions, however, 
 when the illustration should be purely decorative 
 a simple sketch, a suggestion of a scene, intended 
 to brighten up the space and to lend a touch of 
 color. 
 
 In laying out an advertisement remember that 
 it should either stand on, hang from, lean against, 
 or sit on something. That is, it must have a 
 base or a frame. Give consideration, also, to 
 the law of visualization. The eye, in looking at 
 a picture or a printed page, travels from left to 
 right. When we look at something, our vision 
 starts with the upper left-hand corner and travels 
 toward the center. Our illustration, therefore, 
 must lead the eye toward the headline, or toward 
 the picture of the product. Our typographical 
 arrangement should make it easy and natural for 
 the eye to follow our argument. The reader will 
 not easily be persuaded to make his eyes rove 
 hither and yon over the space to see what we are 
 driving at. 
 
 Study the advertisements, as well as the reading 
 matter pages of magazines and newspapers, 
 particularly of magazines, and you will see the 
 value of this principle. Notice how a, magazine 
 editor lays out his pages. A department devoted 
 to household subjects will have its appropriately 
 illustrated heading, and the recipes or other 
 matter will be arranged in a style which makes
 
 WORKING WITH THE ARTIST 83 
 
 them easy to peruse. The page on which a story 
 begins will be most craftily planned to gain and 
 hold your attention. An illustration depicting a 
 thrilling moment in the story will be placed where 
 the observer cannot fail to stop and look at it. 
 Successful magazine editors think deeply on the 
 subject of how to create interest in their editorial 
 pages, and inasmuch as they are dealing with the 
 very same readers to whom an advertisement is 
 directed, it is well to observe how the editors 
 cater to the natures of these readers. 
 
 Keep this thought before you: What you are 
 about to write is not an expression of your personal 
 views"; it is not your individual message to the 
 reader. It is presumably an appeal direct from 
 the advertiser himself to the reader. The name 
 of the advertiser is signed to it; it is not signed 
 by you, even if you do write it. Herein lies the 
 value of assimilating the personality of the insti- 
 tution whose advertising you are preparing. You 
 must be able to write that copy as the manufacturer 
 or merchant himself would express it. Further- 
 more, you must so prepare it that it really is his 
 copy. When you have finished it, you can test it 
 by eliminating the name of the advertiser and 
 substituting that of a competitor. If the name of 
 a competitive product can be used to replace that 
 of the product advertised, and the advertisement 
 then is just as good publicity for the competitor, 
 you have not achieved what you set out to do. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 1. What are the steps in the preparation of an 
 illustration?
 
 84 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 2. How may the copy writer help the artist in 
 his work? 
 
 3. What is one important principle to remember 
 in planning an advertisement? 
 
 4. How can you lay out an advertisement to 
 invite reading? 
 
 5. How can you test your work to learn if it 
 is really individual? 
 
 6. Select several advertisements and test them 
 in accordance with the matter covered in 
 this chapter. Write your own report regard- 
 ing them and criticize them constructively.
 
 XVIII 
 
 WRITING AN ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 We shall assume that you are writing your 
 first advertisement. The natural presumption 
 would be that your first production will be experi- 
 mental, that it will not be good enough to use. 
 Do not allow yourself to feel this way. You 
 might as well not attempt to write it, if you 
 confess beforehand that it will not be a success. 
 Every failure in the world is anticipated by the 
 one who fails. Wars are not won by generals 
 who say: "Well, this is only the first battle. I 
 will lose it, I know. But some day I will win a 
 battle." Wars are won by men who determine 
 to win not only the first battle but every one of 
 them. 
 
 The first draft of your copy may not be perfect. 
 But that is your work, and it is your task to make 
 it perfect. Until you present the copy as a finished 
 product it is still in your hands and is still "in 
 work." Simply sit down and begin writing. Do 
 not wait for, do not attempt to coax, "the writing 
 mood." There is no greater fallacy in the world 
 than the idea that one must be "in the mood" to 
 write. Your mind is just like a motor car. If 
 the car is standing at the curb and you get into 
 it and take the wheel, and step on the accelerator, 
 
 85
 
 86 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 it will not move. First, you must start the engine. 
 You start it slowly and "warm it up." Then, 
 you put the gears in first speed; from there to 
 second, as the car moves along. Finally, you 
 shift into third speed, and you are on your way. 
 
 Just so with writing. The way to write is to 
 write. Just start at the task, whether you think 
 you feel like it or not. Pretty soon your mind 
 will begin to "warm up," and to work for you. If 
 you can use a typewriter, so much the better. 
 Writing with a pen or pencil is satisfactory, but 
 often an idea occurs to you while you are writing 
 one sentence and by the time you have reached 
 the last word of that sentence, the idea has flown. 
 With a typewriter you are setting down your 
 ideas almost as rapidly as they occur. 
 
 Most important of all is it for you to think 
 things out before you write them. We only use a 
 small percentage of our mental powers in ordinary 
 life. About five per cent of the mind is functioning 
 actively observing, listening, and directing our 
 muscles. The rest of it is operating subconsciously. 
 When you have a task before you, call all your 
 mental powers into play. There are few problems 
 that cannot be solved with ten minutes of concen- 
 trated thought. Shut out everything else except 
 the one subject and think hard about it. When 
 you have thought it out and have come to your 
 decision, file that decision away in your memory, 
 and it is always ready for you on any occasion. 
 That is the way to write advertising. Keep turn- 
 ing the matter over and over in your mind. Have 
 a little notebook in your pocket, and when a good 
 idea flashes to you, jot it down. Ideas are your
 
 WRITING AN ADVERTISEMENT 87 
 
 stock in trade and your capital. A good idea 
 never dies; never loses its efficiency. Each 
 advertisement you write will simply be the 
 development of one idea or of one phase of that 
 idea. Think it over and think it out. Virtually 
 you will write it out mentally. Then when you 
 sit at your desk or at your typewriter the mechani- 
 cal part of the work is short and simple, for you 
 will merely copy the advertisement from your 
 mental surface. 
 
 The reader of an advertisement never sees 
 anything but the finished work. It is natural for 
 him to suppose that it was written just as he 
 sees it, that its author began with the headlines 
 or caption, and then went right along with the 
 text, without stopping to think or to change a 
 word, until he reached the end and wrote the 
 signature. It is also natural for one who has not 
 written an advertisement to have the idea that 
 such is the procedure. 
 
 Sometimes it is. When you have worked on an 
 account for a long time, when you have become 
 saturated with the atmosphere of that campaign, 
 when you know it so well and so completely that 
 you do not even have to refresh your memory 
 about it, you may write an advertisement straight 
 through. But even then you will find it advisable 
 to lay the copy aside and allow it to "get cold," 
 then to give it a few touches of revision. 
 
 Your first problem will be your caption, or 
 headline. This is normal. The heading is a very 
 important feature of an advertisement. If you 
 make a wise selection of words for that, and have 
 the name of the product properly displayed, then
 
 88 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 the reader who merely glimpses the advertisement 
 will get the gist of your message. Remember, 
 however, that the headlines on a newspaper 
 story are written last, that even the titles of 
 magazine stories and of books and plays are 
 changed, and changed many times, in some 
 instances, before a satisfactory title is secured. 
 It is just as well for the time being to forget 
 about the caption of your advertisement. 
 
 You have its subject. You know what point 
 you are going to emphasize. You know the theme. 
 Write your story. Do not be afraid of writing 
 too much, in this first effort. Go right ahead and 
 put down all you can think of, being careful to 
 confine yourself to the line of thought which is to 
 be covered in this particular piece of copy. Be 
 enthusiastic, without overdoing it. Be sincere, 
 be honest. Believe what you are writing. 
 
 1. What is the first thought to fix in your mind 
 when you begin writing an advertisement? 
 
 2. Should you wait for ' 'inspiration"? 
 
 3. How can you prepare your work mentally 
 before putting it on paper? 
 
 4. Should you try to have a perfect advertise- 
 ment with the first draft? 
 
 5. Write and rewrite a sample advertisement 
 until you feel it is worth printing. 
 
 6. Select several advertisements. Study their 
 headlines and text. Suggest how you would 
 change the headings to make them more 
 forceful and appealing. Do the same with 
 the body of each advertisement.
 
 XIX 
 
 AN EXAMPLE OF PREPARING AN ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 Picture in your mind one individual who is to 
 read your advertisement and write it to him. 
 You are selling something to him. Let us say 
 that it is bond paper, such as is used by most 
 business houses in their correspondence. 
 
 You have gathered much data about this paper. 
 You have conferred with the paper makers and 
 the sales manager, as well as the advertising 
 manager. You have endeavored to get as much 
 information about this paper as they possess. 
 What, then, is the reason anyone should buy this 
 bond paper? He should buy it to write letters on, 
 certainly. But why should he use it in preference 
 to any others for his business correspondence? 
 Because his letters represent him when they 
 reach the individual to whom he writes; because 
 he should desire them to make as good an im- 
 pression on the recipient as he himself would try 
 to make were he to call in person. And this 
 paper will accomplish this result. Why will it 
 accomplish all this? Because it is a paper which 
 by its very appearance suggests dignity, self- 
 respect, ability, up-to-dateness. Why will it do 
 this? Because it is made in a way which manifests 
 its quality.
 
 90 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 Now we are getting down to something. Our 
 customer is here before us. We are telling him 
 about this bond paper; we are promising him 
 that if he uses it for his correspondence it will give 
 him a good reputation. But our mere saying so 
 does not prove it. Anybody can say that about 
 any paper, so far as words go. We must put 
 some facts behind our argument. We must 
 show this man that we really know something 
 about paper, for are we not signing this advertise- 
 ment with the name of the paper maker himself 
 or the paper company itself? 
 
 But we are not at a loss to answer the questions 
 we imagine our customer is about to ask. Long 
 before we tried to write this advertisement we 
 accumulated plenty of information about this 
 bond paper. We talked with the superintendent 
 of the plant; we talked with the salesmen and so 
 on. We wrote down what they told us. We got 
 so that we almost felt as if we worked in 
 the mill and traveled on the road selling the 
 paper we made. So we tell our customer that this 
 bond paper is made of new, clean, white linen 
 clippings. Observe that we do not overlook the 
 advantage of telling about the newness and 
 cleanness of those white linen clippings. There 
 are rags and rags used in making paper, rags 
 that come from goodness-knows-where and have 
 to be treated in many different ways to get the 
 dirt and impurities and dyes out of them before 
 they can be used for paper making. Good enough 
 and pure enough after that, no doubt, but some 
 way or other this thought of nice, new, clean, 
 white linen clippings has a wholesome air. It
 
 AN EXAMPLE OF PREPARING AN ADVERTISEMENT 91 
 
 suggests paper makers who have a rightful pride 
 in their craft. We go on and tell how this paper 
 is dried by a slow, patient process, how each 
 sheet is inspected separately, how the body is 
 strong fibred so that the paper will last a long, 
 long time and be an enduring record. We dilate 
 upon the pleasant surface of the paper tell how 
 it accepts typewriting or pen-and-ink writing so 
 easily, and how its clean, pure surface makes that 
 which is written upon it stand out so clearly and 
 invitingly. We tell how, because of its surface 
 and its body, this paper takes printing or lith- 
 ography or embossing perfectly, for there are 
 many different kinds of letterheads and we do not 
 know exactly which our customer prefers. Then 
 we tell him how to get this paper, he can buy it 
 of his dealer, for example, and his dealer can get 
 it through any of our branches or depots. In all 
 probability, following the signature of the adver- 
 tiser, we print a list of his branches and distribut- 
 ing depots, for such a list proves our statement 
 that he has ample facilities to render the best 
 kind of service to users of paper. 
 
 Now the chances are that somewhere, in some 
 paragraph of the advertisement we have written, 
 is the very best headline in the world for us to use. 
 Most good headlines are thus written uncon- 
 sciously. Even if we do not find our caption 
 ready-made in our text, by the time we have 
 written it we can read it over and a heading will 
 suggest itself. And that heading will be much 
 better than it would have been if we had tried to 
 invent it first of all. 
 
 Let us go back over the last few paragraphs,
 
 92 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 in which we have told how we would go about 
 writing this advertisement. The exact copy for 
 it is not set forth in detail, but its foundation is 
 all there. It is a description of the method 
 pursued in preparing an actual advertisement 
 that has been printed many times. A casual 
 review of these paragraphs suggests two or three 
 different captions. 
 
 Above all, make your advertisement easy to 
 read. Put the right atmosphere into it. Do not 
 use a cookstove style when writing a bon bon 
 advertisement, nor yet a millinery air when writing 
 one about cookstoves. Make it easy to read. 
 Some time, when you have an idle hour, pick up a 
 copy of Izaak Walton's The Complete Angler. 
 Dip into it anywhere, and observe how quickly 
 you are placed in a calm, philosophical, musing 
 frame of mind. Or read some of Lamb's Essays, 
 and note the exact coloring of each of them. 
 Take one of Elbert Hubbard's Little Journeys 
 and see how quickly you gather the personality 
 and even the peculiarities of the man or woman 
 who is the subject of the particular sketch. 
 
 1. Using the example given, apply the same 
 idea to any product you may select, making 
 a lay-out and writing an advertisement. 
 
 2. Does the reader of the advertisement expect 
 you to be thoroughly familiar with the 
 product? 
 
 3. How may you create a headline?
 
 AN EXAMPLE-OP PREPARINOAN ADVERTISEMENT 93 
 
 4. Select specimen advertisements and analyze 
 their preparation based on the suggestions 
 in this lesson. 
 
 5. Select any one advertisement appearing in 
 any medium. With it as your base, build 
 up what in your opinion would be the kind 
 of a campaign of which such an advertise- 
 ment should form an important part. Out- 
 line a campaign of twelve advertisements 
 in this way.
 
 XX 
 
 PRINTING AND PLATES 
 
 After you have written your copy, comes the 
 printer. He should be given a lay-out showing 
 just how you want the advertisement arranged. 
 If he is a good printer you cannot do better than 
 to let him help you in deciding what size type shall 
 be used for your headings and for the body of the 
 advertisement. It is your privilege, of course, 
 to dictate the face of type and the size for any part 
 of the message. Do not use several different faces 
 of type. This makes an advertisement hard to 
 read it jumbles it up. Simplicity is strength, 
 always. Harmony throughout should be your 
 aim. Italics may be used where emphasis is 
 absolutely necessary for certain words, but avoid 
 too much of that. It makes a spotty page, 
 it does not invite the eye. Give your reader 
 credit for being able to place some mental emphasis 
 upon words or phrases as he goes along. 
 
 Before your advertisement has been put into 
 printed form you will have passed upon the 
 illustration, if it is to be illustrated, which we will 
 take for granted. You will have seen the drawing 
 or painting in its various stages of development, 
 so that at any time you could suggest changes or 
 make alterations. First, there will have been the 
 
 95
 
 96 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 rough sketch or lay-out. Then, there will have 
 been the working drawing, which is several times 
 as large as the actual picture will be when reduced 
 in engraving. And then, you will have seen the 
 finished piece of art. When finally approved, 
 it will have been sent to the engraver. 
 
 Just what kind of engraving shall be made 
 depends entirely upon the medium in which the 
 advertisement is to appear. If in a newspaper, 
 most probably it will be a zinc engraving, with per- 
 haps, certain tone accentuations secured through 
 the use of the Ben Day process. A zinc engraving 
 is made from a line drawing. A half tone is made 
 from a wash drawing, or from a painting, or from 
 a photograph. Even with the best of care, half- 
 tone engravings for newspaper use invite dis- 
 appointment. A newspaper can make its own 
 half tones in its own engraving department because 
 they are made especially for its own use and with 
 full knowledge of, and consideration for, the kind 
 of paper on which it is printed. You cannot 
 have a specific kind of half tone made for each 
 newspaper in which your advertisement is to 
 appear, and where you may get good results in 
 one, you will get bad effects in many others. 
 Therefore, for newspaper use it is better to use 
 line drawings with good black and white effects. 
 
 Half tones for magazine use also vary in their 
 appearance, depending upon the fineness or coarse- 
 ness of the screen. It is the best plan to refer such 
 problems to an experienced engraver and follow 
 his advice. 
 
 Your printer will use the plate which comes 
 from the engraver, and will put your advertisement
 
 PRINTING AND PLATES 97 
 
 in type, following your layout. When the first 
 proof comes in for your scrutiny you should go 
 over it with the utmost care. Naturally, you 
 will want to be sure that no typographical errors 
 occur, but even more important is it to be sure 
 that, after, all your advertisement will look as you 
 hoped it would. 
 
 Words and sentences often read differently in 
 type than they do in manuscript form. The 
 printed proof gives visualization to your language, 
 because you are accustomed to reading print. 
 Give your close attention to the proof, therefore, 
 and make sure that your advertisement looks, 
 reads, and is just what you wanted it to be. You 
 may discover that you should change the arrange- 
 ment of the display lines to secure a better 
 balance; you may find that the advertisement 
 will read easier if you change a word here and 
 there, or eliminate a whole line, or even a para- 
 graph. Familiarize yourself with the marks used 
 in proof reading. In every well-regulated printing 
 shop proofs will be read carefully, and no 
 doubt they will come to you free from errors, 
 but should you find it necessary to mark correc- 
 tions upon them, you, of course, should be able 
 to do so in the proper way. It is a standing rule 
 in a printing office to "follow copy," and should 
 you cross out a word and then write on the margin 
 of the proof, "Take this out/' the printer might 
 think there was something wrong with you but 
 he would insert those three words. 
 
 Advertisements are sent to the publications in 
 which they are to appear in any one of several 
 ways. It depends upon the time you have to
 
 98 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 spare. If several days or weeks are to elapse 
 between the time the advertisement is ordered in 
 and the date on which the forms of the publication 
 close, the advertisement can be put into type, the 
 illustration engraved and the whole layout made 
 into a plate. This course is practically always 
 necessary in the case of an advertisement which is 
 to appear in colors. A color page is a very im- 
 portant piece of work and much time is required 
 for making the different plates. In emer- 
 gencies, however, it is possible for some publi- 
 cations to receive the painting of the illustrations 
 and make the color plates for the advertiser, but 
 this does not always permit the careful study and 
 scrutiny of the color proofs which should be 
 observed in such a case, which may represent an 
 investment of thousands of dollars. 
 
 When the advertisement is not to carry an 
 illustration, and the time is short, it may be sent 
 to the publication in copy form, accompanied by 
 a rough lay-out sketch and instructions as to the 
 type to be used. The publication can then set 
 it. The trouble with this method is that it is 
 almost impossible to secure uniformity of appear- 
 ance. Not all publications have the same kind 
 of type and, therefore, they will come as near to 
 it as they can. Also the ability of all compositors 
 is not the same, and some of them have ideas 
 of their own about display, which may or may 
 not be as good as yours. 
 
 The advertisement may also be sent to 
 publications in mat form. A mat is made by 
 placing a thick piece of papier-mache compo- 
 sition over the type form of the advertisement
 
 PRINTING AND PLATES 99 
 
 and pounding it until it receives an impression. 
 This is indented to such an extent that it can 
 be used as a mold. From this a stereotype is 
 made. Mats may be mailed at small expense, 
 but weather and transportation conditions are 
 factors, and the stereotype made from the mat 
 may not be as clean cut and neat in printing 
 results as desired. 
 
 Advertisers who are desirous of guarding against 
 every possibility of spoiling the appearance of 
 the advertisement which has cost them consider- 
 able to prepare and which will cost them a great 
 deal more to have printed, have their advertise- 
 ments sent to the publications in electrotype 
 form. Thus the exact size and appearance is 
 secured. 
 
 The most important thing to keep in mind is 
 to see the final proof before you say the advertise- 
 ment is all right. This precaution should be taken 
 always, except when it is absolutely necessary to 
 send the copy to the publication and trust to 
 good fortune that everything will be right. The 
 approved proof should also accompany either mat 
 or plate when it is forwarded, so that in case a 
 mistake is made by the publisher you may refer 
 to the proof which accompanied the plate and the 
 order for its insertion. 
 
 There are times when none of the foregoing 
 methods can be followed. These are exceptional, 
 indeed, but they occur often enough to call for 
 mention. Sometimes a manufacturer wishes to 
 make an announcement to the public or to the 
 dealers which he does not wish his competitors to 
 know of until it appears. Or he may wish to
 
 100 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 meet promptly an announcement made by a strong 
 competitor. It may be a radical change in his 
 business policy, or it may be a price reduction 
 that means everything to his business. Here the 
 telegraph comes into use. Naturally it is impos- 
 sible to set up such an advertisement and send 
 proofs or mats or plates to the publications. 
 The copy must be brief, and must carry with it 
 full instructions. Such an advertisement, of course, 
 will be wired to newspapers, although there have 
 been instances when such advertisements have 
 been wired to magazines just at closing date. 
 The instructions usually take more words than 
 the copy itself. Thus, some such advertisement 
 as this might be sent by telegram: 
 
 "Insert following copy in tomorrows issue ten 
 inches on four columns upper right hand corner of 
 third page if possible heading in eighteen point 
 Caslon Bold quote startling announcement to 
 users of Gorgon Tires unquote first paragraph 
 twelve point Cheltenham bold quote All sizes and 
 types of Gorgon Tires are reduced in price twenty- 
 five per cent today unquote second paragraph 
 ten point Cheltenham bold quote The unfailing 
 quality and excess mileage of Gorgon Tires together 
 with their well earned reputation of being backed 
 by the fair square policy of the manufacturers make 
 this the most important news motorists have read 
 in many a year unquote fourth paragraph ten 
 point Cheltenham bold quote Your dealer has a 
 full stock of all sizes stop He will supply your 
 needs immediately unquote signature eighteen 
 point Caslon bold Gorgon Tire Company unquote 
 ten point Caslon bold New York unquote across
 
 PRINTING AND PLATES 101 
 
 bottom of space quote Dealers and distributors 
 in every city stop" 
 
 The above is an imaginary advertisement, 
 but you can follow the instructions yourself, 
 making a lay-out for the space indicated and indi- 
 cating the text of the headline and the body. 
 This will show you how simple it is to meet such 
 an emergency. Several times in the writer's 
 experience he has seen advertisements sent by 
 telegraph to as many as three thousand newspapers, 
 and the results showed that the "intelligent com- 
 positor" was keenly alive to the importance of the 
 occasion. Handling an advertisement in this 
 way is very expensive, but in business, as in war, 
 it is" sometimes imperative to adopt measures 
 which in ordinary times would not be considered 
 for a moment. 
 
 No matter in what form you send your advertise- 
 ment to the publisher or the printer, be explicit. 
 Make your instructions definite and simple, yet 
 complete, whether they be for typography or 
 for changes or corrections in proofs. You know 
 what is in your own mind, but the other fellow 
 does not. If you must send it by telegraph, 
 get everything in. It is better to spend a few 
 dollars more than to try to save them and risk a 
 blunder that will utterly ruin the purpose of the 
 advertisement. In correcting a proof, or making 
 changes in headlines or text, it is better to go to a 
 little more trouble than to rely on the other fellow 
 to understand what you are trying to do. 
 
 1. How can a good printer help you?
 
 102 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 2. How are advertisements usually sent to 
 publishers? 
 
 3. Why should great care be exercised in 
 specifying the kind of engravings to be used? 
 
 4. Why should you be sure to read proofs 
 whenever possible? 
 
 5. If possible secure from some printing office 
 a number of advertising proofs. Revise 
 these as to typographical display and copy 
 in the way you feel would improve each 
 advertisement at least fifty per cent.
 
 XXI 
 
 THE "SLOGAN" 
 
 The slogan is at once the hardest and the 
 easiest part of advertising that you will be called 
 upon to create. Nearly all advertisers desire 
 slogans. A good many years ago one of the most 
 familiar was "You press the button; we do the 
 rest." You have not seen it for a long time. It 
 was changed to "If it isn't an Eastman, it isn't a 
 Kodak." The trouble with the original, although 
 it passed into the slang of the time, was that it 
 advertised not only the kodak but all small 
 cameras. The word "kodak," a coined name, 
 became a word in common use and appears in the 
 dictionaries, and today the general public calls 
 any small camera a "kodak." It is as if the 
 original tire manufacturer had coined the word 
 "tire" to describe a pneumatic device to surround 
 a wheel and create comfort in riding, and the word 
 had been adopted as a common term for all inven- 
 tions of that kind. 
 
 The value of a slogan depends wholly upon 
 whether it advertises the product or the firm 
 to which it applies. For this reason it is the 
 contention of many advertising authorities that 
 it is better to use no slogan at all than one which 
 does not contain either the name of the product 
 or the manufacturer. 
 
 103
 
 104 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 An advertising publication collected several 
 hundred slogans. Among them it is hard to find 
 many which actually suggest the article to which 
 they apply. One reason for this is that not 
 enough advertising has been done on them to 
 fix them in the minds of the public. Some ex- 
 amples of slogans which are so well known that 
 nearly everybody knows what they mean are : 
 
 "Let the Gold Dust Twins do your work." 
 
 "Say it with flowers." 
 
 "They satisfy." 
 
 "U. S. Tires are good tires." 
 
 "Won its favor through its flavor." 
 
 "There's a reason." 
 
 "Best in the long run." 
 
 "Ask Dad he knows." 
 
 "Eventually Why not now?" 
 
 "The Wilson label protects your table." 
 
 "The flavor lasts." 
 
 "From contented cows." 
 
 "Have you a little Fairy in your home?" 
 
 "Hasn't scratched yet." 
 
 "His master's voice." 
 
 "It floats." 
 
 "One of the 57." 
 
 "We are advertised by our loving friends." 
 
 "Ask the man who owns one." 
 
 "America's first car." 
 
 "The national drink." 
 
 The above list is selected at haphazard, as the 
 slogans come to mind. Where the name of the 
 firm or its product is not mentioned in the slogan 
 itself, you will find them used together in the
 
 THE "SLOGAN" 105 
 
 advertising. Thus: "Wrigleys the flavor lasts," 
 "Bon Ami hasn't scratched yet," and so on. 
 The connection will not always be so close, but 
 it will always be there. 
 
 Slogans do not leap into the mind on the spur 
 of the moment. The good ones are those which 
 are written and rewritten, built and rebuilt, until 
 they are brought to the form which seems the 
 most desirable. For example, "From contented 
 cows," the widely known slogan of Carnation 
 Milk, which has graduated to that stage of 
 familiarity where it is utilized by humorous 
 writers, as well as by dignified editorial writers, 
 was created after many conferences and dis- 
 cussions. An effort was being made to find some 
 way of telling why this particular condensed milk 
 was thoroughly good, wholesome, and desirable. 
 In the course of the conference the methods of 
 caring for the herds, the insistence upon comfort 
 and cleanliness in the pasture as well as in the 
 stable, were dilated upon.^ A woman who was 
 in the conference at once made the statement 
 that the best milk was that of cows which were 
 never worried, but were cared for in a way which 
 made them contented. She spoke with the voice 
 of authority, for she w?as, and is, a domestic 
 science expert. Out of her comment she created 
 the slogan, "Carnation Milk from contented 
 cows." It would be difficult to estimate how 
 many thousands, or even millions of dollars have 
 been invested in advertising that slogan alone, 
 and it would be likewise difficult to estimate how 
 much Carnation Milk the slogan alone has sold. 
 
 This particular slogan is used here simply as an
 
 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 illustration of the advantage of having something 
 fundamental something true as both founda- 
 tion and inspiration. It is far better to do this 
 than to try to invent something catchy and smart, 
 which, after all, will merely amuse for a time and 
 then give way to the next smart expression that 
 comes along. 
 
 A slogan will "write itself" in your copy, if you 
 are writing the kind of copy that is distinctively 
 expressive of the product. It is not likely to "write 
 itself" in its final form. But the underlying 
 thought for the slogan will put itself into your 
 copy. You will find yourself adopting some 
 basic form of expressing a certain thought about 
 the product. This may not be apparent to 
 anybody else, but you will discover that every 
 time you begin writing an advertisement for that 
 article a certain thought will come to you and you 
 will use it in some way or other. When you can 
 put your mental finger on that thought, hold it 
 down. Play with it, work with it. Get it shorter 
 and shorter. Write it in a hundred different ways, 
 if you wish, but keep the thought intact. Eventu- 
 ally you will work it out and you will have a 
 selling slogan. Otherwise you will merely have 
 a line to print at the bottom of the column or 
 page and only you and the advertiser will know 
 what it means or why it is there. 
 
 Study the slogans you see in the advertisements 
 you read. Analyze them. You will recognize 
 the ones that are familiar to your relatives and 
 friends and if you are not the public, who is? 
 Find out why these slogans have lived and worked. 
 Determine the principles underlying them and
 
 THE "SLOGAN" 107 
 
 apply those principles to the slogans you try to 
 create. 
 
 We have devoted this much space and time to 
 the slogan, for the reason that it is really a vital 
 part of advertising, if it is good. It may be 
 made so good that it will constitute a whole 
 advertising campaign, many of them, in fact, 
 and make a fortune for the advertiser and enduring 
 success for you. 
 
 1. What is the value of a slogan? 
 
 2. What is the difference, if any, between a 
 
 slogan and a heading? 
 3. For practice, invent a dozen slogans for 
 
 as many products. 
 4. Name as many slogans as you can that 
 
 have actually interested you in the products 
 
 they advertise.
 
 XXII 
 
 A PARTING WORD 
 
 As you journey into your work of advertising 
 you will meet many advisers and much different 
 advice. The advice will generally differ, just as 
 do your advisers. This is natural. The main 
 thing for you to do is to assimilate the best of 
 the advice and build it into your own character 
 and your own methods. 
 
 You will find some people who have a rabid 
 objection to the use of the word "best." Some 
 publications will not accept an advertisement 
 containing that word. The argument is that 
 there can be but one best, and which is the 
 best cannot be definitely and positively proved. 
 The writer has heard representatives of some of 
 these publications urge the use of their columns, 
 advancing as the reason for such use: "It is the 
 best medium you can find." However, where so 
 many articles of the same class and kind are 
 advertised as "the best," the word loses in force. 
 It is better for you to make the reader of the 
 advertisement convince himself that it is the 
 best for him to buy. Say to yourself: "If this is 
 the best, why is it so?" Then tell why, and leave 
 the reader to draw his own conclusion. 
 
 You will meet others who want you to write 
 
 109
 
 110 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING 
 
 "in straightforward, everyday language, just as 
 people talk to each other." This sounds good, 
 but it will not work out so prettily. Listen to 
 the average everyday conversation of two or 
 three people, and you will find that "people 
 talk to each other" in a lot of commonplaces. 
 Use your own language, but use it in the best 
 way you know without being affected. Be straight- 
 forward; be "everyday"; write so "that he may 
 run that readeth it. ' ' Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 
 is a very good example of everyday purity in 
 language and thought. It would be a sacrilege 
 to "put" that classic into the slangy, flippant 
 language which passes current today in so many 
 quarters; it would be atrocious to "put" it into a 
 stilted, "literary" example of "fine writing." 
 
 Keep in mind that you can make the words 
 you use be as attractive as the illustrations that 
 may be used in your advertisement. Study to 
 appeal to the eye of the mind as well as to the 
 natural eye. The successful advertisement is one 
 that .is so planned as to make the public enjoy 
 seeing it, so written that the public gets better 
 acquainted with the advertiser as it reads it. 
 
 Above all, keep "individuality" in mind the 
 individuality of yourself and the individuality of 
 the' advertiser. 
 
 And remember that the truth, even simply 
 told, keeps on convincing people long after the 
 cleverest lie has had its brief existence.
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 ADVERTISING AS A BUSINESS FORCE. D. T. Cherington. New York, 
 
 Doubleday, Page & Co., 1913. 
 THE ADVERTISING HAND BOOK. S. Roland Hall. New York, 
 
 McGraw Hill Pub. Co., 1921. 
 ESSENTIALS OF ADVERTISING. F. L. Blanchard. New York, McGraw 
 
 Hill Pub. Co., 1921. 
 FORTY YEARS AN ADVERTISING AGENT, 1865-1905. George Presbury 
 
 Rowell. New York, Printers' Ink Pub. Co., 1906. 
 A HISTORY OF ADVERTISING. Henry Sampson. London, Chatto & 
 
 Windus, 1874. 
 
 MAKING ADVERTISEMENTS AND MAKING THEM PAY. Roy S. Durstine. 
 New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1920. 
 
 THE MARKET AND PSYCHOLOGY. Hugo Munsterberg. 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF ADVERTISING. H. Tipper. New York, Ronald Press 
 
 Co., 1920. 
 WHAT A SALESMAN SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ADVERTISING. J. C. Aspley. 
 
 Chicago, Dartnell, 1919. 
 HUMAN NATURE IN SELLING GOODS. J. H. Collins. Philadelphia, 
 
 Henry Altemus Co., 1909. 
 
 RETAIL SELLING AND STORE MANAGEMENT. Paul H. Nystrom. New- 
 York, D. Appleton & Co., 1919. 
 
 SALESMANSHIP. A. F. Sheldon. Chicago, A. F. Sheldon. 
 SELLING FORCES. Richard J. Walsh. Philadelphia, Curtis Publishing 
 
 Co., 1913. 
 CORRECT COMPOSITION. Theodore Low De Vinne. New York, The 
 
 Century Co., 1901. 
 MAKING TYPE WORK. Benjamin Sherbow. New York, The Century 
 
 Co., 1916. 
 TYPOGRAPHY of ADVERTISING. F. J. Trezise. Chicago, Inland Printer 
 
 Co., 1911. 
 
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