The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1910-07-21
ADVERTISING
IN SUMMER
EXPERT POINTS OUT MISTAKES
OF MERCHANTS.
THE DEMAND NEVER CEASES
AND TO STOP ADVERTISING IN
SUMMER HURTS BUSINESS.

This is the season of the year when
most merchants in the country. that is
outside of the large cities, cut down
their advertising space in the local
papers. Merchants figure that nearly
all of the people are out of town, any
way" So far as the Register is con-
cerned we have no complaint to make
of the Brookings merchants, as our
advertising has been very good during
the hot weather. However, for the
benefit of merchants, not so wise, in
other towns We reprint the following
from a little booklet entitled The Dull
Season." by F. II. Siegfried:
ITO stop advertising in warm wealth
er is to cut the life line of business in
dustry,' says Mr.. Siegfriend, and the
advertiser who quits forgets that
people read when they are away from
home and that printers ink is about
as cool a recreation as any when the
thermometer goes up.
But let us deny the people read
as much when they leave town and let
us say that tennis Is cooler than print,
for even these concessions cannot dis
establish our contentious" he contin-
ues. so we will grant that people read
less in July and August. But they do
not cease altogether, do they? And
have you ever stopped to consider. not
how many people go away, but how
many millions remain at home?
AS is it the tens of thousands an
advertiser wants to reach or the mil
lions? And, even if it is the tens of
thousands. think you they have pad
ded their bank accounts by taking two
months vacation every year? And,
still referring to- those exclusive tens
of thousands, do they all go away and
return at the same time? Is the sub
way crush over in July? Do the dry
goods stores close shop in August?
Does the stock exchange shut down
- July? Do the roof gardens lose
money in August.
yet some of us cease advertising in
July and August and call it economy.
| am speaking generally, of course,
Nobody wants fur coats in July or
wooden underwear in August. Nay,
let US agree that nobody may wan
much of anything in July and August,
but what a notion that demand ever
ceases or even sufficiently to justify
the average advertiser is quitting for
a month or two at a stretch.
Does a teamster turn his horses to
grass when he to- a hill? Does
he not walk his horses uphill slowly?
Should the advertiser quit the fight in
July and August, or should he not con
tinue to do a little desultory firing?
Besides, to quit is to break up that
cumulative effect which is a primary
inducement to advertise. 1t is a gap
in the firing line, a cessation of the
gentle rain of argument, a break in the
melody of persuasion, a missing link,
a dropped stitch, a lost chapter, a Sa-
hara Of silence because it is hot, an
obituary where a little nursing would
have pulled the patient through, a
break of two small months in the life
line of publicity, a cutting off OF the
lines of communication, a premature
drop of the curtain while the play is
on, a trifling with that eternal truth
that advertising is re'teration everlast-
ing, world without end,
"By all means, if a bushes is a bust
ness of seasons, be so governed. Let
up a little. Walk your horses. But
an advertiser should continue to feed
out a few agate lines or so and not be
intimidated into silence by an unre-
lenting weather bureau. People forget
in July and August much more easily
than they do in December, for in
stance, which is one more of a hundred
good reasons why there should be at
most only a partial letting up and new
err an absolute cessation of advertis-
ing"