MAKING ADVERTISEMENTS And Making Them > *.iy By, •, -^ *' Roy S. Djurstine ^^z- Durstine, Roy S. jp<^ j Making Advertisements and i^lakin^ IT. era Pay INFORAAATION CENTER J. V/ ALTER THOMPSON CO CHICAGO OFFICE IVa-XLA/^-'A^ O INFORMATION^ CENTER I WALTER r,ON CO. CHICAGO Q^>ICE MAKING ADVERTISEMENTS AND MAKING THEM PAY ADVERTISEMENT- To aD Gentlemen, Bookfeners, and others. At the Houfe v»th Stcne-Steps and Safb-TViadows^ in Hanover-Q)urr, in Grape-Screcr, nmlgarlj talPd Crub-Strect> Livcth an AUTHOR, TITH O Writcth all manner of Books and Pam- ^^ phlets, in VeHc or Profe, at Reafonablo Rates: And furnifhetbi at a Minute*s Warning, any CuQomer with Elegies, Pailorals, Bpitbalami- urns, and Congratulatory Verfes adapted to all man* ncr of Feribns and ProfeiSons, readv written, with Blanks to infert the Names of the Parties Ad* drefs'd to. He fupplieth Gentlemen Bell-JNlen with Verfes on all Occa£on$, at iid, the Dozen, or io5. the Crofs) and teacheth them Accent and Prononcia* tion gratis. He taketh any £de of a Quedion, and wrlteth (or or againfl, or both, if required. He likewifb draws up Advertifements, and af* perfes after the neweft Method. Hewriteth for thofewho cannot write themtelves, yet are ambitious of being Authors ^ and will, if required, enter into Bonds never to own the Per* fbrmance. He tranfmogriHeth^ aUa$ tranimigrapheth any Copy^ and tnaketh many Titles to one Work» a6er the manner of the famous Mr. iS— — C— ^— K*B. Hc.is ccme down from the Gamt to the firfi Floor ^ for the Conveniettee of bis Cufiomers* f^ ^ay tmjhake not theHoufe 5 Ucaufeihert^aFe mat^ Pretenders tberdahouts. No Truft by Retake Was hf the first advertising agent ? MAKING ADVERTISEMENTS And Making Them Pay «> Roy S. Durstine ^ NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1920 Copyright, 1920, by CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS Published September, 1920 Reprinted November, 1920 THE SCRIBNER PRE89 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Making an Advertisement . . . . i II. Which Comes First — Copy or Illustration? 17 III. Getting Out of the Rut 37 IV. Atmosphere . . . • 65 V. Sincerity 87 VI. Common Sense 117 VII. The Great Mystery — Merchandising . .131 VIII. Lifting Dead Weight 155 IX. The Right Word in the Right Place . . 175 X. The Campaign 197 XL Ideas on Idea Advertising .... 219 XII. Where Is Advertising Going? .... 235 MAKING AN ADVERTISEMENT I MAKING AN ADVERTISEMENT Advertising came into the world because men were too impatient to wait for Mrs. Jones to tell Mrs. Smith that Brown's pickles were good to eat. Brown discovered that he could tell two million Mrs. Smiths and Mrs. Joneses about his pickles and that he could sell a lot more pickles that way than by waiting for the news to leak out by itself. '' But," said Brown's partner, " I believe in word-of-mouth advertising." " So do I," agreed Brown. " But it takes too long." " What I mean is this," his partner went on. " If Mrs. Jones tells Mrs. Brown, she'll believe it. If we tell her, she'll think we are trying to put something over." "That depends on how we tell her," said Brown. "Well," said his partner doubtfully, ''we might get my nephew to write some advertise- Making Advertisements ments for us. He's a clever boy. He used to write squibs for the high school paper." " But what makes you think he can write ad- vertisements? '' *' He's no good at anything else." *' Say, listen!" Brown exclaimed. '' There's more in this business of advertising than you think." '' Shucks! Stringing sentences together and maybe finding somebody to draw a picture." ^' How do you suppose the pickle business looks from the outside? Putting young cucum- bers together in a glass jar and finding somebody to buy them! " '^ Oh, that's different," declared his partner. " So is advertising! I'm going to find some- body who knows as much about making adver- tisements as we know about making pickles. And then I'm going to get him to tell Mrs. Smith about our pickles so naturally that she will think Mrs. Jones is doing the talking. I'm sick of waiting. These talks over the back fence are all very well, but Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Smith are too busy these days to devote much time to gossiping about our pickles. And, besides, there are too blamed many back fences! " Making an Advertisement To judge by the looks of the magazines and newspapers, there must have been conversations of this sort in a great many factories in the past ten years. Never was there a year in which so many people have said, ^' Oh, are you in the advertis- ing business ? That must be fascinating work ! " Bright-eyed young men and women come into advertising agencies with letters of introduction and say they want to go into advertising. Some- times they want to work for nothing — ^' just to get started." Usually they call it a game — which it isn't. When you ask why they have selected the ad- vertising business, they usually have one or both of two reasons. First, it must be very interest- ing. They always have been students of adver- tising and they have written lots of advertise- ments themselves — just to compare with the ones in the magazines; the inference being that they liked their own much better. Second, they understand that there is a great deal of money in advertising. When they are re- minded that there is also a great deal of money in engineering and insurance and medicine and store-keeping and any other business or profes- Making Advertisements sion in which a person gets a thorough training and works hard, then it appears that the re- wards in advertising apparently come more swiftly and with less effort. More swiftly, perhaps. For, unfortunately the time has not yet arrived when a regular course in college is assumed to be preliminary to ad- vertising as it is to medicine, the law and the ministry, and as it is coming to be to architecture and accounting. There are already a number of courses in advertising, ranking high in edu- cational value, but too few aspirants take ad- vantage of them. They prefer to go into adver- tising through the employees' entrance of an agency or of a manufacturer's advertising de- partment. And though the entrance may be swift, progress is often too slow for lack of a grasp of what the business is all about. But, however swiftly rewards may come, they do not arrive without effort. And if there is any purpose in this book it is merely to give some idea of what happens in advertising beside " stringing sentences together and finding some- body to draw a picture." It is easy to understand the increased interest in advertising in the past few years. Never was leivs JVHAT is news? Some think news is just infor- mation about the outside worlcL But advertising, too, is news. It is information that may be of personal moment. A paper without advertising is but half a newspaper. Marshall Field 8C Company advertisements bear the value of news. MARSHALL FIEID & COMPANY // you don't believe that people regard advertising as news, watch your wife read next Sunday'' s newspapers. The merchants of the country have come to realize that they must make their advertising as truthful and as in- teresting as any other part of the paper. For it is business news. 8 Making Advertisements there a time when advertising has advertised advertising so effectively. The very volume of it has been insistent and impressive. People who never have spoken about it, who perhaps have not been conscious of advertising ever be- fore in their lives, are commenting on the amount of advertising that comes to them with their reading matter. Today more and more people are admitting, though sometimes still reluc- tantly, that advertising has changed their habits. A few years ago it was common to hear a man boast that advertising had never sold him any- thing. Inquiry probably would have developed that he was awakened by a Big Ben, shaved him- self with a Gillette, brushed his teeth with a Pro- phylactic tooth brush, put on his B. V. D.'s, his Holeproofs, Regal shoes, E. & W. collar and Ar- row shirt, and had Kellogg's corn flakes. Beech- nut bacon, and Yuban coffee sweetened with Domino sugar, for breakfast. And then — but why pursue him further on his trade-marked way? Of course advertising never sold him any- thing! The only man who can say that advertising doesn't sell him anything these days is one who shuts himself up in a cage in the heart of an Making an Advertisement African jungle. And even he would probably find that most of his camping supplies were ad- vertised products. Advertising's part in the war has had much to do with the increased interest in it. People could look around them and see how they and their friends were eating less and saving more, changing their habits of working, buying, dress- ing, living and even thinking, all because of ad- vertising. They became intimately acquainted with nations whose names weren't in the old geographies. America's provincialism was broken down. At least three other factors, comparatively slight in themselves, perhaps, but forceful, have had a part in bringing advertising forward. Artists whose names are widely known as illus- trators of stories and originators of magazine covers have been put to work by advertisers al- ways seeking to improve their advertisements. People have recognized their work and have commented upon it. That has been a factor. Then, advertising representatives have cov- ered the field of manufactured products so inten- sively in the past few years that a very large number of business men have heard the story of lo Making Advertisements advertising applied to their own businesses, at first hand. And a third factor, perhaps, has been the greater amount of advertising about advertising — campaigns in the leading newspapers by agencies who believe in it so much that they take their own medicine, and such broad-gauged, far- sighted campaigns as the publishers have spon- sored. But of course the greatest reason has been simply this: Industry has faced the problem of getting back to a peace basis as rapidly and eco- nomically as possible. Merchandise has been produced in greater volume than was ever dreamed. As a nation we have set for our- selves new standards of volume and quality in production. Trade channels half filled by the silt of war had to be dredged for the naviga- tion of business. Advertising was the steam shovel. Many trade-marks w^ere kept before the pub- lic even when their owners had nothing to sell in wartime, and now the keen judgment of those who regarded advertising as insurance is being rewarded. But a greater number were allowed to drop out of sight. Dealers took up other Where the word ''Victrola" came from The tvofd **\^ctrola** was msde vtp by cotn* bining a portion of the word Victor yvish a portion of the word **viola*\ It was originated and trade-marked for the specific purpose of distinguishing products of the Victor Talking Machine Company. The word **Victrola" is a trade-mark fully protected by registration in the United States Patent Office. Its use or application to other than Victor products is not only misleading^ but it is against the law* VICTROLA ■CO. u. ». r»i. or*. ._ VlcaobXva,«j» Vleagb xvn. tteoite MU Victor Talking Machine Company Camden, New Jetsey The word Victrola is a name which the powerful advertising of F. Wallis Armstrong has made invulnerable. 12 Making Advertisements lines. And the rush back to the good will of the trade and the public has been inevitable and the shortest cut has been — as it always will be — through advertising. The man who makes a reliable product, who has an adequate sales force capable of putting his merchandise into the hands of dealers every- where — such a man knows that his sale is not completed until he has made room on the retail merchants' shelves for more merchandise from the factory. Eventually the public will buy a good product even without advertising. But most American business men are not content to wait. They pre- fer to invest their own money in telling the pub- lic why their merchandise is good. They know that if they tell their story simply, truthfully, naturally, they will do a much greater volume of business than they would if they kept quiet. And they know that their printed messages to the public are the most important phase of their public relations. For no matter how smoothly their channels of distribution may be arranged, no matter how attractive their sales policy may be to retail merchants, if the public isn't interested and con- Making an Advertisement 13 vinced by their advertisements, their advertising falls short. These are the really significant reasons for the increased volume of advertising. But there is another cause which has received attention out of all proportion to its actual importance, par- ticularly from people who pride themselves on their own astuteness and are always quick to be- lieve that somebody is trying to put something over. That is the idea that the gain is caused by the excess profits tax; that an advertiser prefers to put into advertising a great share of what he would otherwise have to pay in taxes. No doubt there are advertisers who have been impelled by this motive, just as there are prob- ably advertisers who have lavished unnecessary improvements upon their plants simply to get a run for their money. But to say that the increase in advertising is caused by the tax alone is as absurd as it is un- just to the advertising business. The advertis- ing man who would urge the tax as a reason for advertising would be in the position of the un- dertaker who urged a friend to smoke himself to death in order to collect enough coupons to get a coffin. 14 Making Advertisements No doubt there will soon be advertisers who, either through their own mistaken ideas of econ- omy or through unwise advice, will presently emerge from a headlong advertising campaign only to discover that advertising does not pay. They will be the ones who spent money for ad- vertising without regard for the proper safe- guards of production, distribution and market- ing methods. Yet even these advertisers will probably be forced to admit that even their extravagant and ungoverned way of advertising has left for them a residue of good will and enhanced respect which they have never felt before. And a cer- tain number of these plungers will take a lesson from their experience; they will say to them- selves that if such senseless advertising as they have used can prove its value, there must be some- thing in it after all — something which they never suspected when they decided to have their fling and let the publisher pay the piper. In these cases, the net of an advertising debauch will be the creation of a few rational advertisers, after all. There will be another worth while effect, too. Suppose, in a certain line of business, only one manufacturer takes the spendthrift attitude to- Making an Advertisement 15 ward advertising. When his competitors see that his advertising appropriation is suddenly expanding, they too will be apt to put on added pressure. But not being the spendthrift type, they will increase more cautiously and with better judge- ment. So the effect will be that their advertising development will be quickened and they will be much further along the road to success than they would have been if their joy-riding competitor had not administered an artificial stimulus. At its worst, therefore, this tax phase of adver- tising will unquestionably create many sound new advertisers who never would have known advertising's advantages if it had not been for this rapid though questionable introduction to it. But it should be remembered that this whole discussion of the relation of the tax to advertis- ing is almost entirely confined to the amateur advertiser and to those who are entirely unac- quainted with the advertising business. Among ethical advertising men who are looking at busi- ness in terms of the future and at advertising as a constructive force, nothing could be more sui- cidal than recommending the unrestrained ex- penditure of large sums which could not pos- 1 6 Making Advertisements sibly show a proper return. No matter what the original incentive, whether it is saving money or making sales or making good will, when his advertising appropriation is once spent an advertiser invariably looks around him and asks, " What did I get for my money? '^ And he is entitled to know and to have something to see. Realizing this and appreciating, too, that the unwise spending of money under any pretext is opposed to the permanent good of advertising, the farsighted men of the business have consist- ently refused to help the tax-evader and have discouraged his destructive plans wherever op- portunity ofiFered. II WHICH COMES FIRST — COPY OR ILLUSTRATION? II WHICH COMES FIRST — COPY OR ILLUSTRATION? When you see an advertisement in a magazine or newspaper, you see a finished product — like a building or a play. The better it is, the less it shows the preliminary steps involved in makingit. You have seen buildings which seemed to cry out that their builders changed their minds a dozen times in the course of construction. You have watched plays where the mechanism creaked so audibly that one of the characters might as well have said : ^' I know I'm acting con- trary to all human standards, but the author can unravel the plot in no other way." Similarly you have seen advertisements in which the picture, type and copy should have been granted an absolute divorce on the grounds of incompatibility. As you go along the streets of a strange city you find yourself looking twice at certain build- ings. After a winter's theatre-going you look 19 WIRE The nation's business is transacted over millions of miles of wire. Th« New Jersey Zinc Company plays its part in maintaining this won- derful equipment, for it is New Jersey Zinc that protects these wires from rusting and breaking and prevents a prohibitive replacement cost. This Zinc, (commercially called spelter), is but one of this com- pany's many products. All are vitally essential to many of the nation's greatest industries. The New Jersey Zinc Company by reason of the location of its zinc deposits, the quality of its ore, the modem equipment of its many plants, and the extent of its resources, can be depended upon for ex- ceptional service and unvarying quality in every one of its products. THE NEW JERSrV ZINC COMPANY, SS IfailSna, Hem YoA CSTABUSHEO 1(41 CHiCACOi UlaodrdM Zta>C<«pu]r, till Mu^MItt BaUdlaf tiinftatnr, «/ Z creasingly sombre. His tastes, too, are more sim- ple and his concrete wants are fewer. Display of any sort, is not considered **good form.** So when it comes to choosing a gift for the World, it is necessary to use much care. Let us help you with this gift problem. We have given a great deal of study to things we offer as suit- able gifts for father, brother, and husband. We have pipes, cigarette cases, and humidors for the smoker. Our sets of studs and sleeve links are full of quiet elegance. We have walking sticks and umbrellas imported from London. Watches of all the best American and foreign makes we will gladly regtUate to keep perfect time for the owner. Shreve, Crump and Low Company Waldtes, Fine Clocks, Stationery, Trazeling Requisites U7 Tremont Street Boitoo, MsssachusetU e :H>,8.C.SL.C: Even the merchandise has been brought into harmony with the copy and the design in this admirable advertisement. By George Batten Co. 30 Making Advertisements tion of courtesy rests first with the author, who invites the seance, and commonly charges for it. What follows, but that in speaking or writing we have an obligation to put ourselves into the hear- er's or reader's place? It is his comfort, his convenience, we have to consult. To express ourselves is a very small part of the business; very small and almost unimportant as compared with impressing ourselves, the aim of the whole process being to persuade. ^' All reading demands an effort. The energy,^ the good-w^ill which a reader brings to the book is, and must be, partly expended in the labor of reading, marking, learning, inwardly digesting what the author means. The more difficulties, then, we authors obtrude on him by obscure or careless writing, the more we blunt the edge of his attention; so that if only in our own interest — though I had rather keep it on the ground of courtesy — we should study to anticipate his comfort." Charging for the seance is only another way of saying that an advertisement exists to sell something. So obviously the process of intrud- ing must be arranged as effectively as possible. And in this the two elements which can help most are the picture and the headline. First, Copy or Illustration? 31 Possibly the best rule to follow in an illustra- tion is to be sure that it tells a story. If the ex- planation can be thrown away it is a mighty good picture. But sometimes there is unfortunately no story to tell in the picture, if the artist can judge by the copy furnished to him. He is then in the position of the actor who was confronted with carrying out that famous stage direction in an eminent British playwright's drama — the one which says, '' Enter in the manner of one who has just had a cup of tea.'' So he does his best to decorate the advertise- ment instead of illustrating it. His decoration may be effective, but at best all it can hope to accomplish is to shout to the public : '^ Come and read this! I don't know what it's all about, but Fm here to catch your eye, so look this way! " Or he may play safe and draw that picture of Mrs. Housewife and Mr. Dealer, or the crowd out at the country club, or the family at dinner, or the factory beside a winding river, or two men talking across a desk, or the bride doing her housework, or any other one of the good old dependable subjects that have advertised every- thing from food to fashion. If a picture is 32 Making Advertisements going to tell a story, why not have it tell just one story instead of a whole news-stand? Ordinarily a safe plan to follow in creating interest by an illustration is to show the product in action. The motor truck tire crunching through the mud and leaving the track of its tread was infinitely more interesting than a cold picture of a tire floating in space would have been. If you are selling aeroplanes, it 's ob- vious that a picture of a plane leaving the ground, or making a flight or landing, would create more interest than a portrait of a station- ary plane. In the same way it's more interest- ing to show a suite of furniture in a room, with pictures, hangings and ornaments, than to show merely a table and some chairs. If you are ad- vertising a newspaper, show it being read by somebody. Every piece of merchandise is de- signed to fill a need. Show it on the job — in action — satisfying the need it comes to fill. It simply means making your product fit into the scheme of human events. There is always something exciting about a piece of merchandise that lends itself to a cen- tral, individual idea. '' See that hump? " made one hook-and-eye stand out above all others for Symphony in B Q^iet Atkfov Booklet and Impressive List of Users <77ie Some bright soul has called the typewriter The Word Piano. The beauty of the Noiseless Typewriter is that it does its work --pianissimo! You may have a full orchestra of Noiseless Typewiters in your office but they never disturb. Quiet reigns supreme. The irri- tating brass-band-jazz fades into a lullaby. To install the Noiseless is like having the hurdy-gurdy move away from your window on a busy day. NOISELESS TYPEWRITER The Noiseless Typewriter Company, 253 Broadway, New York 'Phone ^Barclay 8205 Business is a serious subject^ and for that very reason the best way to talk about it is with a smile. It's the best way because most people don't do it. How much more interesting is this type of copy prepared by N. W. Ayer y ^on than the conventional '"''Now listen^ Mr. Purchasing Agent!" 34 Making Advertisements a generation. Take the revolver that can be hammered without going off, the table varnish that thrives under a shower of boiling water, the motor car which has no gears to shift, the soap that lathers well in cold water, the cigarette that won't bite and the hack-saw that will, the muci- lage that sticks and the motor-oil that doesn't — all these have succeeded in getting themselves associated with definite, individual ideas. Then the way is opened for a good headline which can sum up the whole argument with in- terest, vividness and force. A poor one can be merely dull — or misleading, like the kind which says, '^ Columbus discovered America. Have you discovered this new oleomargarine? " If it fails to attract attention, or attracts it under false pretenses, the headline might better be left out. The making of the advertisement which is to appear before the public is the most important thing in advertising because the advertisement is usually the only thing the public sees before it buys, and is always your surest way of conveying to your customers your own idea of your business as you know it. Take the best trade investigation ever made. First, Copy or Illustration? 35 Take the best window displays and the most carefully drilled lot of salesmen on earth, set the stage to perfection and then tell the consumer a dreary, commonplace story and what does he get out of it? A dreary, commonplace story. That's all he sees! You can't go to him and say, " Yes, but you ought to see how well we make our merchandise." What does he care? He's off buying that other product to which the ad- vertising attracted him. Make your trade plans right, of course. Set your house in order with your salesmen and your dealers. Let them all understand just how you plan to advertise and where they fit in. But be- fore that and after that and all the time in be- tween make sure that your consumer copy is so unified, so representative of you, and so sincere that it will surge back at you like a living thing. Ill GETTING OUT OF THE RUT Ill GETTING OUT OF THE RUT One of the greatest shortcomings of today's advertising is its rubber-stampism. Too many advertisements are so commonplace that almost any name could be signed to them. More than that, in most cases it would not be necessary to limit the choice of signers to any single line of business. " I want my advertising to reflect my com- pany so exactly," says the advertiser, '^ that it will fit my company and no other." And what does he get? Advertisements which look and sound so much like other adver- tisements, already appearing, that you could re- move his name and substitute his competitor's without disturbing the effect a particle. Yes, you could even go into another industry without introducing a discordant note. Right here will come a protest from those who spend their days in the service of reflecting other men's busi- nesses. 39 40 Making Advertisements n " That's all very well," they will exclaim, but when there isn't a shred of individuality about a business, what are you going to do then?" Well, advertising, despite its close relation to many kinds of business, is only one business, after all. And for the purposes of this discussion it is much more feasible to speak of individuality in advertising than to advance theories for indi- vidualities in all businesses. Without question it would be desirable to see every business house achieve a personality of its own. Most of them have one already if the search is carried deep enough. But to suggest ways of accomplishing this would be a reasonably large order. Ifs quite enough, here and now, to limit the discus- sion to advertising's ways of seeking out and ex- pressing the individualities which already exist. Is there any reason why nine out of ten jew- elry establishments should have advertisements which are so alike in border, in design of type, in phrasing, that you could lay your hand over the signature and defy any one to tell you the name of the signer? Is there any reason for the pompous formula of so-called " institutional " advertising — the picture of the plant or of the Li Hung Chang Li Hung Chang declined to go to theraces because he said it was already established thatonehorsecouldrunfaster than another. Why should a man look at machine-made clothes when he can be hand tailored forthesamemoney? MEN'S SUITS $30 TO $6S TOPCOATS $30 TO |65 HAND-TAILORED AND READY FIFTH AVENUE Men's Clothing Shops, 8 West 38th Street LOCA.TBD ON STREET LEVEL Another instance of the way that Frank Irving Fletcher constantly enriches his copy by introducing interesting gossip. 42 Making Advertisements founder or both, at the top ; the solemn and res- onant paragraphs protesting of the house's virtue and long years of faithful service to the Ameri- can people? Switch the signature and all these handsome tributes to themselves might be spoken equally well by makers of condensed milk or automobile tires or baked beans or paint or men's clothing or any other houses with long and hon- orable histories dating back to an incorporation prior to 1900. No; the trouble is deeper-rooted than a firm's thoughtlessness in failing to provide itself with points of distinction. Suppose we construct a rubber-stamp piece of copy and then call in the house-wreckers : Your grandmother didn't know any better ! Think of the hours your grandmother used to waste in . . . ! She didn't know any other way. But you do. You can be free, forever, free from the drudgery of ... . Every day can be made longer. You can do your .... better than ever before and still have plenty of time for reading, calling, shopping and the movies. The simple principle of this device permits you to do more .... with less effort in shorter time at lower I know a banker— (purely in a social way.) "TIM," he s*!^ to m< the other pushed by steam they bughed their heads off. But Stephenson kept oo and nc-v no one knows what McAdoo'll do next Everybody takes a Kodak with them because Eastman was a nut Duryea was a nut and now the automobile industry is the third largest in the country. Ford was a nut — and is yet So, if I am a nut I am rather proud of it Don't think that I put myself in a line with these names. They arc all big nuts — cocoanuts, at least — while 1 am only a pea-nut But I am just as much in earnest about my own particular nuttiness as they were. 1 do believe that the use of color on billboards for advertising is in its infancy: that better artisti than have yet been used can make posters that will get over, make a greater impression and sell more goods. I do believe that if I had a charted to talk to you, I might (mind you I only say "might") be able to suggest something better than you have usfd or Anyway. I am always willing to put my time against youn Co find out RUSLING WOOD Earnest Elmo Calkins is also a 7iut. His particular type of nuttiness is that he is never willing to see an advertiseynent leave the office of Calkins y H olden until it is carefully de signed y thoroughly written aiid capably illus- trated. ^^i? Prohibition mmmm k, fmttic, Iml k Knm Cnmtl t tniM Oif> Wniar. C«M aoss svnuM ciovn ^•^ Cnm CrtftI K0^w i^ '".""^ ti* 111, lie nt !^ONDaV TheOnlyPopularTax is the Tax on Others The New Taxes will be founded on Justice, In all Justice there is an admixture of Injustice. To this injustice wis cam offer one consolatiork — •• we will get used to it. '^^0 Life is too short in which to make two reputations. One rea» son Mark Cross has never relaxed the stand' ards of excellence since 184S. Cross Silk Bag The advertiser who throws dost in hit reader^ eyes wUl eoentaaUy blind Aem to his own attrae- tionM. Cross Silk Bag Many years ago a poet speaking of various things said thai "Many a flower is born lo blush unteen" This column is intended to prevent oar sharing that dark obscurity. Believing that arguments about quality " are not read ivith as much conviction by the public as by the writer of them;' Frederic T. Murphy of Mark Cross amuses by the epigrams at the head of his advertisements. 50 Making Advertisements He is ready to indorse What-Has-Been-Done and to question Anything-Different. His let- ters come to you '' Dictated but Not Read." He has his secretary call you on the phone and keeps you waiting until he gets ready to talk. If he is an advertiser his modesty about his concern takes the form of saying, " We think we have a rather unique organization here," meaning, of course, that there couldn't possibly be another organization so good. He protests that he doesn't interfere with his company's advertising in any way but mentions casually that he ^' dashed ofiF a little thing a year or so ago " which was used as a full page adver- tisement and '' everybody said it was the best thing the house ever did." Such a man can be prevailed upon to consent, with just the proper amount of reluctance, to sign his company's advertisements and presently he will honestly believe that he wrote them him- self or, at the least, that he '' wrote them in the rough and let somebody else whip them into shape." In color advertising he likes any color if it is red. He " doesn't know anything about art, but he knows what he likes." Transplant that type of man to the advertis- Discovered RtCORO ? ToiJ hy a Thtatricai Managtr " Each puff deserves an encore — and the price brings down the house" "A Dramatic Critic discovered the Ricoro cigar," said the Theat- rical Manager — "and it was the best thing that bird ever did. "It was on the opening night of 'The Music Master' when I spot- ted this fellow smoking in the wings. Before I recognized him I hissed, 'Hey, no smoking! Lay off that cigar !' and regretted my brusqueness as soon as I saw w ho he was. "Later, I met him in the green room and apologized. 'No offense — no offense,' he laughed. 'I'm an inveterate smoker, and have a cigar going most of the time. Tr>' one of 'em — see if you blame me!' "I lighted up— and. Shades of Bopth! It was some cigar! When he said it was a Ricoro, and that I could buy 'em for only 10 cents at any United Cigar Store, it was as pleasant a surprise as the two-column boost he gave the show next morning!" Sctoner or later you'll discover Ricoro — ^'ou'll be astounded at the quality of Ricoro. It is a beautifully made cigar of ricfi tropic fragrance and gentle mildness. The popular prices of Ricoro are made possible because it is im- ported from Porto Rico July free. A dozen sizes and shapes— 8c to 3 for 50c. Sold only m L'nited Cigar Slores--Tkank You!" UNITED CIGAR STORES -t^ lSeM7f[ac&'Ci^ar A striking copy idea, consistently carried out. Notice the zvay in which the theatre motif runs through the copy. In each advertisement of this series prepared by the Federal Advertising Agency, the choice of words was just as appropriate. Getting Out of the Rut 51 ing business and he becomes '' a merchan- dising expert." He exerts pressure on pros- pects through bankers. He shakes hands at dinners, moving from table to table. He joins organizations. Mysteriously he speaks of prob- lems. His customers are clients. When you phone to him he is always in a conference. His assistants are pale reflections of himself and, since they commonly do most of his work while he pounds desks in offices, his assistants apply his ideas to the preparation of advertising. Their minds run in the grooves already carved by others. They aren^t taking any chances and they aren't going through any unnecessary mo- tions. Apparently they believe that if you ring enough changes on the good old appeals and presentations you can take care of any advertis- ing campaign ever started. So why waste energy and risk failure by seeking anything new? A good illustration of those who are in the rut and those who get out of it is furnished by time- liness in advertising. To the bromides, timeli- ness merely means a chance to trail along with the thoughts which happen to be occupying pub- lic attention at the moment. To the sulphides, 52 Making Advertisements it means an opportunity to do a striking thing in a striking way. The rut-nestlers welcomed the word camou- flage when it arrived from France — welcomed it, ran it into every possible piece of copy, twisted it this way and that, squeezed it into headlines, poured it into body text, and finally wore all the paint ofif. A little later they decided that every piece of copy ought to have a war angle and they showed snappy American officers packing their kits — officers with Sam Browne belts over the wrong shoulders, officers wearing campaign hats where tin hats would have been required, and officers wearing tin hats at the ports — always officers, always loading up their kits or getting advertised prod- ucts in packages from home. One American manufacturer actually decided that just to be different he would show plain doughboys using his product, and the effect was so refreshing that he received a round-robin letter of appreciation signed by six doughboys in France. Timeliness to many means copy planned ac- cording to the following illustrative formula: January — a naked little boy representing the New Year; February — Cupids, hearts and val- bu5iness to-day. Offers ten year r old w^hisKey to-morrow. ^ -^ Where does he get it? "^ I give up. Out my ^vay we can't live ten years over night I am able to sell old whiskey because I have an old business. M^Henry Founded 1812. Costs you no more. If you find a dealer i?vho doesn't Keep M^HeiiTy please step softly: hell be cross if you w^aKe him vb>. Founded 1812. Costs you no more. Father Time is a partner in my business. He 'tends to the aging. Most folks use a printing press instead. M^Henry whiskey Founded 1812. Costs you no more. They say the good die young. M^Henry whiskey is very old and very good. Mistake somew^here. Founded 1812. Costs you no more. These clever street car cards are by J. K. Fraser, the inventor of the famous Spotless Town series. 54 Making Advertisements entines; March — St. Patrick and shamrocks; April — Easter lilies, Easter eggs and rabbits; May — either May-poles or the Decoration Day motif; June — the sweet girl graduate; July — Uncle Sam and firecrackers; August — sailing, seashore, vacations; September — back-to- school stuff; October — Hallowe'en, witches. Jack-o'-lanterns; November — turkeys; Decem- ber — Santa Claus. Watch the people who pride themselves on the seasonableness of their copy and see how many work these ideas into their pictures, their borders and even into the headlines and copy. That isn't timeliness. That's getting your copy ideas from the almanac. Here are some instances of genuine timeliness, instances which smashed their way to public attention: At one o'clock one morning last summer the British dirigible R-34 started on her homeward voyage. The New York papers on the morning of her safe arrival in England carried a full- page advertisement reproduced on the opposite page. One day while the submarine war was still going on, the wireless brought word to New York that a passenger steamship had been sunk The sign of a reliable dealer and tke workTt best GasoUac took her home The fuel tanks of R-34 were filled with SoCOny Aviation Gasoline on her trip home. Quite naturally she made splendid time and her engines did all that was asked of them— drivea by clean-buming, power-full SoCOny Gasoline. STANDAEID OIL COMPANY OF ^fEW YORK SaCPNY GASQUNE When the whole world zvas thinking about R-34, the McCann Company saw its legitimate opportunity to present the reliability of Socony Gasoline. It would be difficult to find a more apt example of the proper use of timeli- ness in advertising. Getting Out of the Rut 55 at sea. The next day the W. S. S. people pub- lished a full-page based on that event. Going from the sublime to the ridiculous, a hat merchant on Forty-second street decided that his landlord's most recent raise in rent was one too many. He told the public all about it in a five-column advertisement the next day, say- ing that he preferred to sell hats at his regular price, and that he vs^ould continue to do so at his new address. The same people who say that ^' advertising must be a fascinating game " are now beginning to add that they " understand it has been reduced to pretty much of a science." Why, it hasn't begun! To be sure it has pro- gressed further in ten years than in the preced- ing two decades and further in thirty years than in the preceding thirty centuries. But why? Not because of anything done by the type of advertising man who is content to make his ad- vertising like other advertising. For all of him, clothing advertising would still show men in plug hats and tail coats, men looking like villains in the ten-twenty- thirty melodramas. Patent medicine advertising would still go as univer- sally unchallenged as it goes today in many otherwise respectable papers. 56 Making Advertisements When Charles Austin Bates showed the ad- vertising world that a mailing card could be cov- ered with humor and salesmanship and humanity all at once; when Earnest Elmo Calkins and In- galls Kimball proved that art and taste were as much at home in advertising as in galleries and libraries ; when S. Wilbur Corman demonstrated that the language of everyday had more selling- power than stilted sentences ; when Stanley Resor decided that an advertising page could be made as interesting as an editorial page; when J. K. Eraser found that people liked jingles which rhymed and scanned, and that a whole volume of argument could be condensed into a phrase on a street car card ; when Richard H. Waldo proved on Good Housekeeping that a magazine could guarantee all merchandise advertised in its pages; and when Ogden Reid and G. V. Rogers gave him an opportunity to clean up the adver- tising ideas of New York by proving with the New York Tribune that the same principle could be applied by a newspaper — These were a few of the moments when adver- tising took a leap forward and upward in this country. If these men had been afraid to recommend a new idea or if the people whose P.P.C. Printing Facta The paragraph you are now reading is not " justified." That is, it is set up just like typewriting with a " space " of equal width between all of the words. Each line starts all right at the left-hand edge, but ends where it wilL Now, typesetting diifers from typewriting in that the right- hajid edge must be as straight as the left-hand edge. This result is achieved by insert- ing " spaces ** of varying width between -the words, and sometimes " letter-spacing " the words thernselve*. This is called "justification." iContiauad on Thundty) Publishers PrintingCompany 209 West 25th Street r«/«y>Aoo« Chelsea 7£tfO P.P.C. Printing Facts Type smaller than ten point shoiild never be used for advertis- ing nteratxire. Then, too, this ten-point type should be leaded, as in the paragraph you are now reading. Here we have eight point •olid. Twice as many words can be set to the square Inch in this size as in the ten point leaded, as shown above. Nine out of ten people will refuse to read an ad- vertisement when it is set in type as hard to read as this. When tempted to use a small, sized type it is always better to boil down the story to half of its original length and set it in ten point, leaded. Publishers Printing Company 209 West 25th Street Telephone Chebea 7840 P.P.C. Printing Facts (.Continued from Tuesday ) Now this paragraph has been justified. The ragged edge at the right has disappeared. One oJ the tests of composition, whether by hand or machine, lies in the ju^* tification. Sometimes you see too many words crowded into a line. Th^ makes for difficult reading. When there are too few words ' to a line, the spaces between the words are too conspicuous, «nd the result is dis* tinctly tmpleasant. The skilful compositor is ex. ceedingly particular about his justification, because this per. haps above all else makes for good or bad typography. Publishers Printing Company ^09 West 25th Street Telephone Chelsea ?84/> P.P.C. Printing Facts Here is a good formula for those who use photo engravings: Line cuts can be printed on any kind of printing paper. Half-tones of 133 screen and ISO screen can be printed on coated paper. Half-tones ofl20 screen and 133 screen can be printed on super paper — or a good quality of Eng- lish Finish Paper, When in doubt always use the coarser screen — ^but not coarser than 120. Do not try to print vignettes on uncoated paper. Publishers Printing Company 209 West 25th Street Telephone Chelsea TS4a Here is one firm that educates customers. Ralph I. Bartholomew is re- sponsible for these fine examples of how to pick and then sell an audience. 58 Making Advertisements advertising they were preparing had said, *' Well, we've never done anything like that be- fore," advertising would never have shown its amazing progress. But it's only fairly well started. The biggest part of the job lies ahead. In his book, " Preju- dices," H. L. Mencken says: " Why do we Americans take off our hats when we meet a flapper on the street, and yet stand covered before a male of the highest eminence? A Conti- nental would regard this last as boorish to the last de- gree; In greeting any equal or superior, male or female, actual or merely conventional, he lifts his head-piece. Why does It strike us as ludicrous to see a man In dress clothes before 6 p.m.? The Continental puts them on whenever he has a solemn visit to make, whether the hour be six or noon. Why do we regard It as Indecent to tuck the napkin between the waistcoat buttons — or Into the neck ! — at meals? The Frenchman does It without thought of crime. So does the Italian. So does the Ger- man. All three are punctilious men — far more so, Indeed, than we are. Why do we snicker at the man who wears a wedding ring? Most Continentals would stare askance at the husband who didn't. Why Is It bad manners In Europe and America to ask a stranger his or her age, and a friendly attention in China? Why do we regard It as absurd to dis- tinguish a woman by her husband's title — e.g. Mrs. Judge Jones, Mrs. Professor Smith? In Teutonic Getting Out of the Rut 59 and Scandinavian Europe the omission of the title would be looked upon as an affront." And later in the same chapter: " Why do otherwise sane men believe in spirits? What is the genesis of the American axiom that the fine arts are unmanly? What is the precise machin- ery of the process called falling in love ? Why do people believe newspapers? . . . Let there be light! " There are scores of questions which the adver- tising man wants answers for, as Mr. Mencken says : *' After all, not many of us care a hoot whether Sir Oliver Lodge and the Indian chief Wok-a-wok- a-mok are happy in heaven, for not many of us have any hope or desire to meet them there. Nor are we greatly excited by the discovery that, of twenty-five freshmen who are hit with clubs, 17| will say ' Ouch ! ' and 22^ will say ' Damn ! ' ; nor by a table showing that 38.2 per centum of all men accused of homicide confess when locked up with the carcasses of their victims, including 23.4 per centum who are mnocent; nor by plans and specifications, by Caglios- tro out of Lucrezia Borgia, for teaching poor, God-forsaken school children to write before they can read and to multiply before they can add; nor by endless disputes between half-witted pundits as to the precise difference between perception and cogni- tion; nor by even longer feuds, between pundits even 6o Making Advertisements crazier, over free will, the subconscious, the endo- neurlum, the functions of the corpora quadrigemlna, and the meaning of dreams in which one is pursued by hyenas, process-servers or grass widows." It's undoubtedly true that many of the same fundamentals underlie all branches of business and that advertising men are constantly encoun- tering parallels between one man's puzzles and another's. The cry of '^ My business is differ- ent! " is still prevalent though it is on the wane. But there are hundreds of questions which ad- vertising men want answered — advertising men who are not satisfied to shuffle the same old pack of ideas and deal to their customers from the same deck. Why do all women respond to the style ap- peal? It's easy enough to say that it is their in- stinct to adorn themselves. Why is it? Be- cause they want to attract the opposite sex? Why should they? In some races women do the wooing — even in this country among the cliff- dwellers of Arizona, if we are to believe those who have studied the tribe. Why does the woman run the household ex- penditures in some homes and the man in others? Are those people right who tell us that nearly Getting Out of the Rut 6i 90 per cent of purchases for the home are made by women? Have they studied enough homes? Perhaps they have, but have they? Then why advertise to men at all? And yet every advertising man can remember successful advertising of this type in the so-called men's magazines. Is that because men's magazines are read by women? Is there any such thing as a man's magazine or a woman's magazine? How distinct is the line between mass and class circulation? Can you say that this newspaper is read only by horny-handed sons of toil who get into subway expresses in their overalls? Can you say that that magazine is read only by those who eat hot- house grapes, drive racing cars, winter at Palm Beach, have nine servants and children who elope with chauffeurs and show girls? You see low-priced merchandise selling out of the magazines whose contents are supposed to be a secret among Newport cottagers and dia- mond necklaces being profitably featured in newspapers read by stenographers. Nor has this condition been limited to the recent days when high wages have made the poor rich and the income tax has made the rich poor. A cer- 62 Making Advertisements tain perfume advertiser has made a success of advertising to Fifth Avenue in order to sell Third Avenue. Since all your friends tell you they never read long advertisements, who does? You can still find people who are indignant because the flat magazines carry over their stories into the advertising pages and you can find just as many people who feel that the old standard magazine, with its advertising section at the back, seems small and cramped. Which size is better from an advertising viewpoint? Is it better to strike a reader when his mind is on a carried-over story and when you must pull his eye away from editorial matter or when he is frankly leafing over the advertising pages? Besides, how big is a page? Is a reader who subscribes to a magazine a better prospect than one who buys it on a news- stand? What is the right proportion between subscriptions and news-stand sales? You may argue that the subscriber is a better prospect because he has shown his interest by contracting for a whole year of the magazine at once or that the news-stand buyer is more valu- able because he voluntarily makes the effort of Tlif Lhlhs lki.il foi O.Uvi. /.;/•) /-•>■> IV tjrhei has a motor-car And mother too can steer it. My sister owns a bicycle But 1 may not eo near it. Upon « red velocipede My brother rides about And even baby has a cart When nursie takes her out. I am too big for go-carts, and My mothersays, too small To have a tricycle" like Nan's Because I'd maybe fall. ' So wheni used to want to travel Up or down the street I almost always had to go Just only on my feet. But nowl'vesomethingof myown That takes me near or far, 1 don't suppose you'd guess, but it's A reg'iar Kiddie-Kar! I had a fight with Bobby Lee He'd always want to ride it And took it almost every day Until 1 had to hide it. And then one time 1 just went up And asked his daddy whether He couldn't have one too, and now We Kiddie-Kar together! TT" IDDIE KAR. first built by a fjih*t for ■^^ his own child, is not a grown-up's idea ofwh.it a child ought to like, but a simple conveyance which satisfies a natural insiincc of ihe child. It fills a period noi taken care of by any other vehicle. Ir IS perfectly safe, even fot a baby one year old. It is close to the ground and almost impossible to tip over. There is nothing to pinch fingers or tear clothes. No sharp comers, no splinters— every sur- face is sand-papered. No adjustments to gel out of order No paint to come off. It is the only practical indoor- vehicle. It gives the child healthful exercise out- doors. It is used the whole year round. Don't wait till Christmas. Get one for your child to ride these brisk October days. You will find Kiddie-Kar wherever juve- nile vehicles are sold. REAL KIDDIE-KARS ARE MADE ONLY BY WHITE YAade m ftve sizes No I -(or 1.2 , No 2-fo> M 1 No 3— foi J^ 1 No «— fo» 4.S 1 No S-ro". v.. Thewmc KIDDIE-KAR u ttflUtttd tfftde tnatk. II u • Iwsft on tK