Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1912-07-05
1.-THE SOUL OF ADVERTISING"
Beautiful Word Picture Of Harrington
Emerson Given at Dallas Conven-
tion Of Advertising Clubs.

The following beautiful word pic
ture of the Soul of Advertising" Is
from the address delivered by Har-
rington Emerson at the Dallas con-
vention of the Associated Advertising
Clubs Of America. The philosophy,
wisdom and genuine poetry of the
address will commend 1t to all:
Consider three of the most at
tractive and beautiful things that live
flowers. fruit. women. 1t Is from
them that we shall learn about the
soul of advertising.
The flower wants the been and the
butterfly to help it. 1t it is not helped
it will not ripen into fruit, 1t will fade,
wither and die. 1t must advertise.
So it decks itself out with all
| imaginable beauty of form and color.
1t pours out perfume that is carried
miles afar. Those who scent the per-
fume, those whose eyes are charmed
by the color and form, hasten to
where the flower Is.
I'm the flowers and In the fruits you
can find the soul Of advertising. and
also cencrete, definite examples of
successful advertising practice.
THE soul of advertising, as of other
psychological control of humanity,
consists in first liking the one you are
claiming you serve so that he will In
turn like you. There is gulf be-
tween getting up as good watch as
can be made for the money and ask
ing a dollar for 1t, and taking mans
! n dn11 oiy
sible in return. There Is a tremen-
| dous difference between running the
safest steamers in the world, Incident
| ally also the fastest and most luxuri-
Gus as are the Cunarders, and charg-
| ing high prices for the tickets and
| giving speed and luxury and neglect
ing every underlying moral principle
of efficiency.
Therefore, the soul of advertising
! further consists in making the client,
| the buyer, serve commercial ends by
first giving him what he most needs,
in such agreeable form that he is will
| ing and eager to purchase. dinner
prepared by French chef is more
healthy. more digestible than one pre-
pared by the unskilled cook and incl
dentally II tastes so good that We are
willing to pay three times as much
| for it. The whole aim Of the good
cook is to put what is good, not what
! is bad. in palatable form. Therefore,
the fact is recognized that the more
solid benefits are etherialized. are
spiritualized. are made romantic not
! by direct appeal to the grosser in
stincts of self-preservation, race
preservation and parasitism, three
major instincts. but by appeals OF
color. of perfume and of taste. The
| flower never advertised the fact that
! it had proteids and hydrocarbons,
very useful to bees and butterflies as
food and building materials. 1t ad-
vertised color and beauty and sweet
ness and took pains to put something
of transcendent value back of them
! The fruit never advertised starch
and cellulose, it advertised color and
beauty, and aroma and lusciousness
and it gave with these qualities trans
scendent food value. Woman does
not advertise her usefulness, she ad-
vertises her attractiveness. and the
woman who makes good gives all the
real essentials, a whole life OF SELF
effacing devotion.
ITO what extent have advertisers
grasped the soul of advertising?'