The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-04-29
A Talk on Advertising from
TIE STAR

A skilled layer Of mosaics works with small
fragments of s~tone-they fit into more places than
the larger chunks.
The skilled advertiser works with small words
they fit into more minds than big phrases.
The simpler the language the greater certainty
that it will be understood by the least intelligent
reader.
The construction engineer plans his roadbed
where there is a minimum of grade-he works along
the lines of least resistance.
The advertisement which runs into mountain
Gus style is badly surveyed-W minds are not built
for htghIevel thinking.
Advertising must be simple. When it is tricked
out with the jewelry and silks of literary expression
it looks as much out of place as a ball dress at the
breakfast tablet
The buying public is only interested in facts.
People read advertisements to find out uhat you haze
to sell.
The advertiser who can fire the most facts in the
shortest time gets the most returns. Blank cartridges
make noise, but they do not ha-blank talk, however
clever, is only wasted space.
You force your statesmen to keep to solid facts
you don't allow them to sell muslin with quotations
from Omar or trousers with excerpts from Marie
iCorelli. You must not tolerate in your printed
selling talk anything that you are not willing to coun-
ltenance in personal craftsmanship.
Cut out clever phrases if they are inserted to
the sacrifice of clear explanationsmzorite copy as you
tak. Only be more brief Publicity is costlier than
conversation ranging in price downward from
$500 a line, talk is not cheap, but the most expen-
lsive commodity in the world.
Sketch in your ad to the stenographer. Then
you will be so busy saying 1t" that you will not
have time to-bother about the gewgaws of writing.
Afterwards take the typewriter manuscript and cut
out every word and every line than can be erased
IA 1O.4 -1;4+.- ~ ;o 49, ufo ~ 4 " u-.-..
in the end is all that really counted in the beginning.
Cultivate brevity and simplicity. "Savon
Francois" may look smarter, but more people will
understand French Soap Sir Isaac Newton's
explanation of gravitation covers sac pages, but the
schoolboy's terse and homely "What goes up must
come down" clinches the whole thing in sac agords.
Indefinite talk vos1s space. 1t is not 1000
productive. The copy that omits prices sacrifices
half it's pulling power-it has a tendency to bring
lockers instead of buyers. It often creates false
impressions. Some people are bound to conceive
the idea that the goods are higher priced than in
r~eatity-others, by the same token, are just as likely
to infer that the prices are JoWer and go away think
ing that you have exaggerated your statements.
The reader must be searched ont by the copy.
Big space is cheapest because it doesn't a0aste q single
eye. Publicity must be on the ofensive. There are
far too many advertisers who keep their lights under
their bushel-the average citizen hasn't time to over
turn your bushel.
Small space is expensive. Like a one5fake snov-
storm, there is not enough of it to lay.
Space is a comparative matter after all. 1t is not
a case of hoW much is used as ho0 1t IS used. The
passengers on the limited express may realize that
j ones has tackled a twelye-inch single on every
post and fence for a stretch of five miles, but they
are going too fast to make out what the shingles say,
yet the two feet letters of Browns big bulletin board
on top of the hill leap at them before they have a
chance to dodge it. And at that is doesn't cost
In oorlv SO Yor,cb oc tho coIno fof01 Of T0poc'e- J;rI-~r
display.