The record-union., 1893-03-25
TIGNER'S TALK.
Thirty Minutes on the Value of Ad-
vertising,
But the Audience Expected the SUBJ
ject to be Much
Broader,

J. H. Tigner lectured for thirty min
utes last night at Pythian Castle Hall to a
fair-siZed audience of business men. He
was announced to speak on the best
methods of encouraging trade. The au-
dience felt considerable disappointment
that the lecture was wholly devoted to
the benefits OF judicious advertising.
Not but that the speaker told his hear
ers truths when he inveighed against
waste of means in advertising in occa-
sional circulars and sheets posing as
newspapers, but which are only gotten
up to make money out of advertisers.
The assumption is that genuine bust
ness men know such methods to be
wasteful; know what Tigner told them to
be true, that the regular newspaper is the
best medium for advertising, and that
the advertisement in paper one pays
for better impresses than the announce
ment made upon a sheet cast into the
dooryard without cost. But the men
present 1elt that their intelligence was
questioned by recitation of such truths.
ct it must be confessed that very
large number OF advertisers do not in
practice prove their faith in the truth,
since it is comparatively an easy task for a
h.
sionaI or special sheet. assuming to be
journal, and fill it with cash advertise
lnentS, while the same houses will stint
home regular newspapers in advertising.
Had Mr.. Tigner announced his lecture
simply as a talk on legitimate advertis
ing, and its place in business successes,
no disappointment could have been felt
by any who attended. AS it was, the ma
jority of those present were of the opin-
ion that they had not learned anything
new from the speaker, nor that old truths
had any more deeply been impressed
upon them.
Mr.. Tigner's address turned upon these
points: The best advertising is in the
regular newspaper press; publicity is es
sential to success in business; the inn
mediate and direct results of advertising
are not readily traced, but the beneticence
OF judiciOus advertising is undeniable.
The value of an advertisement is not so
much in its size as in its frequency, its
persistence, directneSs, plainness and
freedom from adjectival eX Xpression.
Ilmeliness in advertising is an essen
tial, as well as clearness; there is not, as
rule, the care and thought given to the
preparation Of the copy for the adver-
tisement that the importance OF the sub
Ject demands: to produce the best results,
advertising should be marked by a char
acteristic, filling all the space taken with
words is always mistake; the declaration
thata leader is the "best," better than
any other;" that mo competitor can meet
it," and so on, is not wise; plain state
ment of what one offers, and its daily
repetition is what tells and most i'm
presses readers.
The business men who succeed without
advertising are few, and their success is
oftenest due to business created by their
nelghDOrS who do advertise. The wise
advertiser has something to say, studies
how best to say it, and when. When he
resolves TO push an article ne presents it
first to his immediate community through
his home paper, then extends TO adjacent
fields, and finally, as the business ex-
pands, takes to general address to the
largest possible number OF readers.
lie cited numerous instances of the
value OF persistent advertising quoted
from great merchants expressions con-
corning the value advertising had been to
them, and cited authorities to show that
advertising is no longer deemed lux
ury, but part and parcel OF the cost of
business conduct.
He concluded by insisting upon the
newspaper as the best advertising me-
dium, because it is the only advertising
agency the buyer pays for, and he appre-
ciates the more for that reason all that the
business man who uses it has to say in it;
bscause it is the chief or only literature Of
the largest number; because it is the
speediest vehicle for reaching the buyer;
because money paid to it for advertising
service goes into immediate circulation
and is not diverted, as is tho case with
transient sheets and odd circulars; be-
cause advertising in regular newspaper
can be made better to fit the season. the
time, the occasion; because through it an
article can be given celebrity more easily,
and because an advertisement in the
newspaper reaches farther than in any
other medium.
These are simple truths that the audi
tors felt they knew already, and they
were free to so express themselves as
they departed, and to intimate that Mr.
Tigner was employed by the new spapers
to repeat to them an assumptive, which,
were 1t we'll taken, would not lessen the
value of the truths, nor remove the fact
that not all advertisers practice them.
Nevertheless, it is the fact that Mr..
Tigner's talk was disappointing, because
the impression obtained that it was to
take a wider range and treat of more than
the subjects handled. Besides he was too
general and too brief, and did not, as well
he might, have made his subject more
analytical and have better illustrated
errors in advertising and have pointed
out more distinctly what experience
among advertising agents has developed
as the best forms to be EMPLOYED