The Indianapolis journal., 1894-03-22
Coupon Advertising Denounced.

The National Advertiser, published in
New York, is a paper devoted to the inter-
ests Of advertisers. It's columns are filled
with suggestions TO advertisers and prac-
tical advice about advertising. Now in its
eighth year, 1t is fair to assume that its
managers have as much useful informa-
tion relative to advertising as can be found.
Certainly their suggestions are entitled to
consideration. Recently the Advertiser de-
nounced what is known as the coupon
scheme" which many publishers have re-
sorted to to swell their circulation. This
sort Of advertising has been adopted so ex-
tensively by many papers that they carry
at one time three or four different schemes
which, with their display type overshadow
the modest advertisements Of the regular
patrons OF the paper. The denunciation of
the Advertiser has so fully met the ap-
proval of the advertisers who may be said
to be national so widely and extensively
do they advertise, that they have written
the paper most cordially commencing its
course. The manufacturers Of "Castoria,"
which. because of it's extensive advertising,
is known throughout the land, write:
The National Advertiser hit the nail
squarely on the head in its utterances on
the coupon question, and 1 indorse all il
said Circulation gained by the use of the
coupon scheme is practically of no use to
the advertiser. People buy the papers for
the coupons and never look at the adver-
tisements. Every advertiser knows, or
should know. that the more advertising
there is In a publication the less valuable
space in that medium becomes to the indi-
vidual advertiser.
Messrs. Wells & Richardson, of New
York, a prominent medicine house, in the
course of long letter denouncing the cou-
pom scheme. say:
We believe that great injustice is done
to advertisers by all plans of this nature.
side OF the publishing field and into the
commercial field. In order to do this it
takes large blocks of its own space, which
advertisers could not afford 10 take, and
pushes the coupon scheme, thereby over
shadowing its advertising patrons.
The Philadelphia house manufacturing
Hires's Root Beer writes:
/ have in mind a case of one of our pub
offer to school teachers by vote for the
most popular school teacher. The one Sc
curing most votes was to have a trip to
Europe. There were thousands of these pa
pers bought and the vote clipped out and
the paper thrown away without even a
line being read. These schemes, in our
Increased circulat tion, obtained by utilizing
SO much extra space as to increase the size
Users and We IS should hesitate 70 to % paee
advertisement in publication running
these schemes, as il would be hard to tell
what the normal condition of the circula-
ton would be without this artificial growth.
The advertising manager of the Royal
Baking Powder Company says:
l know from personal observation that
there are many papers which, were it not
for the schemes they are running, would
not have half the sale they boast of. The
practice cannot be too strongly denounced.
Several more extensive advertisers could
be quoted, but these are sufficient to indi-
cate the views of the men who have re-
duced the business of advertising to an al
most scientific basis. Whatever objections
there are to the coupon schemes for the
national advertiser must hold in the case
Of the local patron Of the advertising col
umns.