The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-04-17
The Man Who Retreats
Before Ills Defeat
By Herbert Kaufman.

Advertising isn't magic. There is no element of
the black art about it. In its best and highest form
it is plain talk, sane talk-seNing talk. It's results are
in proportion to the merit of the subject advertised
and the ability with which the advertising is done.
There are two great enemies to advertising
profit, and both of them are caused by ignorance of
the real functions and workings of publicity.
The one is to advertise promises which will not
be fulfilled, because all that advertising can do when
it dccomptshes most, is to influence the reader of
your copy to investigate your claims.
If you promise the earth and ddiuer the moon aduer-
Using wW not pay you.
If you draw men and women to your store on
pretense and fail to make good, advertising will have
harmed you because it has only drawn attention to
the fact that you are to be auoidcL.
1t is as unyust to charge advertising with failure
under these conditions as it would be for your
ncighbor to rob a bank and find yourself indicted for
has misdeed. In brief advertised dishonesty is eeen
more profaess than uneaploied deception.
The other great error in advertising is to expect
. more ont of advertising than there is IN it.
Advertising is seed uhich a merchant plants IN
the confidence Of the community. He must allow
time for it to gyow. Every successful advertiser has
to be patient. The time that it takes to arrive at
results rests entirely with the ability and determine
ton you display in the effort. But you cannot turn
back when you have travelled half way and declare
that the path is wrong.
You can't advertise for a week and because your
store isn't crowded say it hasn't paid you. 1t takes
a certain period to attract the attention Of readers.
Everybody doesn't see what you print the first time
it appears. More will notice your copy the second
day, q great m0ay>nore at the end of the month.
You cannot expect to win the confidence of the
community to the same degree that other men have
obtained it without taking pretty much the anne
length Of time that Mey did. But you can cut short
= the period between your Introduction to your reader
and his introduction to your c0uRcrs by spending
more effort in preparing your copy and displaying a
greater amount Of CONTINGENCIES.
You mustn't act like the little girl who planted
a garden and came out the neat day expecting to find
it in full Wooma Her father had to explain to her
that plants require roots and that, although she could
not see what was going on, the seeds rcye doing their
most inp0ytnn5 worh jUst before The Houus sbot09d 05oUc
ground.
So adrertising is doing its most importaRt work
before the big results eventuate, and to abandon the
money which has been invested just before results
arrive is not only foolish but childish. II Wood be
just as 1ogicaE for a farmer to abandon his fields because
he could not harvest lis corn a weeh after he planted 1t.
Advertising does not require faiM-mereIy COM
mon sense. If it is begun in doubt and deserted be-
fore normal results can be reasonably looked for, the
: fault does not lie with the newspaper or with pub
licity-it rests entirely upon the head Of the coward.
who retreated before he aCos defeated.
copyright 1905 by Tribune Company. chicago