Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1897-10-08
THE ADVERTISING ART.
Ito Wonderful Development Shows It's
Value 10 tho Public.

lt9 WOnOtTfui DcNciOpWeUt oNOWS US
Value 10 tho Public.
OF the millions Of people who read
the daily papers published in the
United States, from New York to
indianapolis and from indianapolis
to San Francisco, a very large major
ity give moro or less time to reading
the advertisements. Some do this
because they wish to find a particular
thing or are interested in some par
ticuar line of business; others be.
cause their eye is caught by good
display; others to see how business is;
Others in search of bargains, and SO
on. The regular patrons of a paper,
its home readers, read the advertise
ments almost as regularly as they do
any other part of the paper, and II
regularly followed up they arc a good
picture and reflex of the times A
daily newspaper without its regular
grist Of advertisements, changing
every day in the year, and giving
with every change Kaleidoscope
view of trade with its reflected lights
of social life, would be a very poor
sort of paper.
The evolution Of the art of adver-
Using is as interesting as that of any
other feature of modern life. In the
infancy Of the business there was no
art about it and not much business.
It's value was not appreciated either
by advertisers or publishers and prob
ably'it had not as much value IN for
mer times relatively as it has now, be-
cause it took time for people to be-
come educated up to reading adver-
tisements as they do now. One rea-
son why they are so much more
read now than formerly is that
they are so much more read
able. They are not only better word
ed, but fresher, and, being changed
so much oftener, are much more a re-
Aex of the times. \ badly worded adj
vertisement is almost MS bad as none
at all, and stale advertisement, one
that shows on its face that it is out of
date, is as offensive to readers rs it
should be to publishers and advcr-
tisers.
To be effective an advertisement
should be we'll constructed, adroitly
wordcd, right to the point and
changed as often as possible. No
doubt one reason of the great growth
of advertising in recent years is that
business men, having learned to APP
preciatc its value, are more careful
than they used to he in keeping faith
with the public and living up to their
advertisements, In these days of
sharp competition a merchant who
should break faith with the public
by advertising one thing or one
price and Offering another would
soon find the public letting him
severely alone A shrewd advertiser
would almost as soon let his note 60 IL
protest as not to live up to his adver
tisement Shrewd advertisers, too
look carefully to the wording of THEN
advertisements, and if no one in tho
establishment is skilled in that di-
rection they hire somebody else to dc
it. In all cities now there are pro
fessional writers of advertisements,
who do nothing else and receive large
salaries. The business has grown
enormously in every direction, Civ
ing employment to a great many
people maintaining large and costly
agencies, and involving the cxpcndi-
ture of hundreds of millions Of dol
lars annually.
The art of advertising has been
progressive from the beginning 1t
has never experienced any check
except bank check-and it is as ca
pensive and progressive to-day as it
was This is the best possible proof
that it pays.-Indianapolis Journal.