Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1908-03-12
Advertising As a Science.

Philadelphia, March S,-To 80 Amer
lean business men in a hundred, PROB
| ably, advertising has become one OF
the prime necessities OF life. Not
naphazard advertising of the old fash
Toned kind, which simply covered SO
much white paper with so much black
INK and was valuable as giving a. con
Germs address if anyone was sufficl-
emily interested in the concerns goods
to look for il, but the modern, twenti-
eth century kind Of advertising which
makes the use of display type an art
and the wording of copy a science.
American colleges have come to rec
ognize that to meet the needs of Amer
lean boys they must add to their
purely academic courses opportunities
to learn merely practical" thinSa
All manner of unitarian information is
impaired at the University of Wiscon
sin. Banking, finance and book-keep-
ing have been introduced among the
studies at Harvard and Yale; sales
manship is taught III many OF the uni
versities; and at Swarthmore there
are regular courses in advertising.
Advertising in it's development as II
science fits curiously into the AGA
demic curriculum. Good advertising,
like good craftsmanship, is t. a large
degree a matter of Psychologist I'M
derstanding human nature, of present
ing your case in the way that will APP
peal most quickly and forcibly to the
minds of people whom you wish to
make customers. The psychology of
successful advertising is much is
most interesting and valuable phase,
and is by no means the least interest
ing and valuable branch Of the general
study of psychology. Indeed, the re-
lation of the principles of Psychology
to successful advertising have been
a matter of serious study by professors
of psychology in prominent American
universities, perhaps the most exhaus.
tive study of this sort and the most
complete series of experiments having
been made by Dr.. Walter Dill Scott
director Of the psychological IabOra-
tory at Northwestern university.
And in his book. The Theory of Ad-
vertising, DR.. Scott sets forth in en-
PERTAINING form the results of a long
series of investigations conducted prt-
mariIy in the spirit OF the scientific
discoverer.
Advertising is a subject of general
interest, too. 1t appeals not only to
the man whose business depends upon
it but to the woman whose buying de
ponds upon it, and the younger mem
GERS of the family who get not lit
tie of their knowledge of the progress
of the world from the current adver-
Using columns.
There is no question of the import
ance Of advertising in these days Wnen
competition is so keen and when the
and magazines have be
come the real municipalities Of the
country. Dr. Scott describes the pur
pose of advertising as being 10 attract
attention to goods in such way that
he who reads it viii desire to possess
them, and, the first requisite OF good
is. therefore, that it shall
attract and fix the readers mind. |
That this is not so easy to do as one
might think is evident when you con
slider how narrow our attention is.
have determined by a |
great variety Of exact tests that practI- |
caIy nobody can attend to more than
four visual objects at once; about four
letters, four simple pictures, four geo |
metrtcal figures, four easy words, on
what not are as much as the mind
will take in together
The power with which one thin
the eye depends largely o.
the absence of counter attraction
Whether the counter attractions ar
in other advertisements or are a
within the individual advertisers Owr |