Johnstown weekly Democrat. (Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa.) 1889-1916, 1890-02-28
ADVERTISING SCIENCE.
AN EXPERT GIVES HIS OPINION
UPON THE SUBJECT.

mated Several Styles of Advertising
Which Had Zig Runs.
Nobody has tried more different kinds
of advertising than we have" said
member of we'll known clothing firm,
few days ago, cor tried the different
kinds more thoroughly, but we have set
tied down now to regular newspaper
advertising. and believe that, for per-
manent business, shat alone pays. We
were the first to use the sails of vessels
in the harbor as an advertising medium.
Then we got up the alphabet puzzle
and gave away half a million puzzles
while the craze lasted. Afterward we
invented the Waterbury watch idea.
We had to do something, because three
of our principal competitors had failed,
and their stocks were being sold for next
to nothing by assignees, SO we decided
to give Waterbury watch with every
twelve dollars worth of goods pur-
chased. We advertised the watches
wound and set To wind them fast
enough we had to rig up little machine,
worked like a sewing machine, that
would do the winding, and we kept sew
eral boys at work winding and setting
them. Before we quit we had given
away forty thousand of the watches.
NEWSPAPER "ADs"
But nothing ever pays us like the or
dinary newspaper advertising. The fact
is, there has come to be in this city o
class of advertisement readers, just as
there is of news readers. They read the
advertisements every day, and, of course,
the man who wants to attract them has
to get up an advertisement that will do
it. The day of standing advertisements
in the paper, Go to So-and-So's for cloth
ing or Go to This-and- That's for shoes
has passed, just as the day for painting
signs on rocks and fences or on the sails
of boats has passed. You must have
something interesting and fresh every
day in the advertisement, and it will be
read. We have proof of this all the time
m our business, for an advertisement of
any certain thing is sure to bring throngs
of people into the stores inquiring for it
next day. By the number of such in
quiries we rate the success or failure of
an advertisement. can guarantee to
bring thousand people to our stores any
day by the insertion of an advertisement
of some specially in the morning papers.
1--WE were the first firm to introduce
the use of outline cuts in newspapers.
An Englishman who had done caricatur-
ing on the other side, offhand sketches
as part of the entertainment of show
of some sort, and had come to this
country, first brought the matter to our
attention, and we tried few of the cuts
as an experiment They succeeded so
we'll that we made them a regular feat
ure. After while the papers them
selves caught onto the outline idea, and
now that is almost the only style of
newspaper illustration used. A while
ago we concluded to try the experiment
of dropping the cuts. They are expen-
sive, because besides the cost of them,
the papers charge double rates for the
space they occupy. 1t has been poor
economy, however. The cuts were worth
much moro than they cost as an adver-
tisement, and we shall go back to them.
MUST BE TRUTHFUL.
Another thing about advertising of
late years is tho gradual increase in the
truthfulness of it. People are learning
that it doesn't pay to lie in an advertise
ment any better than it does anywhere
else. The theory that "a suckers born
every minute and he's just as likely to
come in here as anywhere else won't do
for permanent thing. think that there
has been noticeable improvement in
this respect lately, and that business mep
are rapidly learning that honesty is the
best policy in an advertisement as well as
outside of il.
"a curious thing is the difference there
is between advertising for women and
for men. For man an advertisement
must be short and to the point. 1t ought
to treat of but one subject and to be writ
ten as tersely as possible. Men read ad-
vertisements on the jump; they never
deliberately sit down to go through the
advertisements in a paper. For the
women. on the contrary, you can put
in as much detail as you please;
once woman is attracted to an
advertisement she will read it all through,
no matter how long it is or how fine the
type is. Then there is no use putting an
advertisement for a man in a Sunday
paper. If you make it big enough to be
seen in one of those enormous sheets it
will be too long to be read by man. An
ordinary advertisement, such as would
attract him in week day paper, is bur
led in the great Sunday editions But
you can take page on Sunday and be
certain that the women will look for it
and read it all through carefully. Thou
sands of them buy the papers, and espe-
cially the Sunday papers, for no other
thing than to read the advertisements.
The big dry goods houses know that, and
that is why they all use the Sunday pa
pers so freely. New York Sun.
ChicagO's Millionalres.
Down TO the present time Chicago's