Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-01-10
ADVERTISING DOES IT
CIGARETTE SMOKING Is KEPT ALIVE
BY CLEVER SCHEMES.


cle-He Says That Only Fine Tobacco
Is Used in The Manufacture.
"Three-fifths of the cigarettes sold in
this city," said commercial traveltr rep
resenting an eastern mandatory, n few
days ago, ''are from one house Why?
If you could see our advertising bills
you wouldn't ask. Nothing on earth is
so capricious, so tickle as the cigarette
trade, or the cigarette either for that
matter. The cigarette would lie down
and die tomorrow if it were not for the
small boy, and be is the most capricious
thing that strides the earth Today he
swears by the 'Trio's Delight tomorrow
he grows enthusiastic over the Old Sol
dier,' and the next day loudly calls for
PEARLS Pet.'''
Doesn't the name have good deal to
do with it?''
Eyes; my opinion is that securing hap
by name is half the battle. But there is
absolutely no telling whether it's going to
take well or not. I've seen some of the
most euphonious names ever heard of fall
fiat"
why do cigarettes require more adver-
Using than cigars?"
For one thing, cigars of certain price
vary in quality more than cigarettes.
When a man finds good cigar he sticks
to it. Just notice the difference in a cigar
store. That cigar smoker comes in and
calls for his brand, the cigarette consumer
looks through the glass case, hesitates,
picks out the kind that for the moment
seizes his fancy and buys. He does the
same thing every time. Cigarette smok-
ers, other than the small boys, are people
4. L
denying that As rule the cigarette
smoker is a man rather refined in his
tastes. And this taste has to be appealed
to through the eye as well as anything
else
In the whole range of advertising you
won't find any class of wares more arts
tically advertised than cigarettes. Some
cigarette manufacturers claim that it isn't
so much the advertising that sells their
goods; it's simply the extraordinary quail
ty of their goods, and say that they cont
spend more than per cent. of their re-
ceipts in advertising. That is all bosh.
Our firm spends from IS to 40 per cent. and
count ourselves lucky. If we should Quit
advertising for a single month | am con-
WINGED our receipts would fall off half"
Five cigarette manufactures make over
90 per cent. of all the cigarettes sold in the
country. The amount of ''all tobacco"
cigarettes sold, compared with the paper
product, is infinitesimal
Continuing the agent said:
1.-The evolution of cigarette advertising
is quite interesting. Being head and shout
ders above all competitors it is only nat
ural that we should have inaugurated
every advertising novelty that You see to-
day. The first unusual thing in cigarette
advertising that we did was bill posting
London woke up one morning and found
itself with sort of yellow flush about it.
We had pasted 10000 big yellow posters
about the central portion of the city in one
night. That was the beginning. Pretty
soon we were posting bills all over the
globe; on the Alps, on the wall of China,
and when | was in Burmah last summer l
saw some there.
"Then we began using photog apis of
large size. Afterward we used small pho
tographs-one in each package of ciga-
rettes Other manufacturers Immediately
began doing the same thing, and we
dropped it and used colored lithograDh
cards instead. These we run in series of
so and 100 cards. First were the flags of
all nations, then the worlds beauties
pictures of 100 famous pretty women. Then
the flags of fifty cities then race horses
then the sporting champions of the world
Next we issued a series of Jockey colors
then the arms of nations followed by fifty
naval flags. After this we had the birds
of America, then fifty Indian chiefs, and
then a series of game birds.
Following this we gave prizes, ticket
inserted in each package giving the buyer
a chance in the drawing. Just think of it, ~
he said, ''2, SOC, DOC, 600 cigarettes were sold
last year. In spite of all the fight that has
been made and is being made against the
cigarette it IS an actual fact that more
cigarettes are consumed every year
Lying aside all personal interest, am
unable to understand all this antagonism
to the cigarette. Instead of being made of
the poorest tobacco it is made of the best
that is, the cleanest and mildest, which
are the top leaves OF the tobacco plant. All
the adulteration is little glycerin to
make the tobacco stick together while it is
being shaved up. l have been around a
tobacco factory good deal and l never
saw anything else put in. The idea that
opium is used is absurd.
There is, however, no such thing as rice
paper used. Ordinary linen paper is wet
with Il solution of rice water. The trouble
with the cigarette is that il is so mild that
the smoker oversmokes himself before he
realizes it. Then many people don't care
to smoke cigarettes unless they can inhale
the smoke. That's always bad There is
law against selling them to boys under
sixteen years old, but | have never seen
the boy yet, even if he couldn't reach up to
! the counter, who wasn't willing to swear
he was sixteen. They soon caught on to
that. Dealers invariably protest against
the cigarette because the margin of profit
is so much smaller than on cigars. 1t is
almost like a druggist selling postage