The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1912-01-12

News, recently appeared in the maga.
zine, "Judicious Advcrtisng':
II had certain sum of money to
spend for advertising some product.
wouldn't spend all the money for two
or three insertions of big space copy,
for the reason that IL is too much
along the flash in the pan style
It's too much like a bluff People
will say well, he's shot his wad."
\ merchants ad, although small,
appearing frequently, shows stability
and staying power, and creates "a feet
ing among the buying public that he is
permanent and reliable.
When you use small copy and secure
more frequent insertions, YOU keep
your product and arguments before
the public just that much longer, you
secure that cumulative effect that re
suits from persistent advertising, and
YOU can bring out one or two selling
points and drive them home, which
think is an advantage.
People are more apt to read your
short to-thC-point arguments than they
are to read II big story all at once.
Big copy is all right if you can use
ii all the time for its very bigncss inn
presses the reader with the prestige
and reliability of the firm behind it;
but | do not believe in big spreads
used spasmodically PersstenCy wins
A great many merchants and ad-
writer's decide on the size of an nd and
then write their copy to fit ii. | be-
lieVe in doing just the reverse. Tell
your whole story or as much of il as
you want to tell and let il occupy
whatever space is necessary to make it
stand out and be easily read
Humor and Poetry Barred.
Regarding so-called humorous and
poetical copy, | don't think it is ever
justifiabe. | have never heard of such
copy ever selling dollars worth of
goods.
A straight, easy to understand, and
businCsslike statement of what you
have to sell is a thousand times more
effective.
Sunny Jim is dead and forgotten,
Spotless Town has been wiped off the
map, but the Gold Dust Twins, backed
up by serious copy, will live on for
ever.
A man or woman reads the news
paper for the news of the day The
store offerings constitute the store
news of the day, and more and more
thrifty buyers, both men and women,
are coming to realize that it pays to
read the ads and that it is money in
their pockets to patroniZe the store
that advertises.
Why, then, when they are looking
for your store news, should you give
them a joke?
If you are selling Overcoats for fiji
teen dollars, say SO. Don't spin a
yarn or try 10 be funny.
The man who wants to buy an over
coat wants an overcoat and not joke,
and you can never convince him that
your Overcoat is as good as your joke
no matter how clever your joke
may be.
The man who is ambitious to i'm
prove his ability to write advertising
might benefit by a study of the Bible,
Shakespeare and Caesars Common
taries.
Here are, in my opinion, three ad-
vertising masterpieces.
Here's a gem from the Bible: Jesus
wept" Can you beat that for brevity?
Here's one from Shakespeare: "To
be or not to be" There's a lot in
those six words, and five of them are
among the shortest in the English
language.
Here's one from Caesar: 81 came
| saw, | conquered" There's a straight
| from -thc-shouldcr statement, and it
sinks in.
Building the Headline.
The headline is very important
part of an ad, for il is largely the at
| tentiOn gcttor.
The aim of the headline writer in
/ the editorial department is to put the
| gist of the story in the headline. So
believe it should be the aim of the
copy writer to put the kernel of the
I'D in it's heading
It's a good plan in selecting a head
line to consider the article to be ad
vcrtised.
Everything that is made or grown
can be divided into two classes-ne
Cessities and Injuries. If the article
is necessity, a staple something that
the people are always in the market
for, such as shoes, hats, dresses
bread, etc, the name of the article
advertised should appear in the head
line. If it's stoves, the word stove
ought to be in the heading for it vii
catch the eye of the man who is il
the market for a stove, and being in
terested in the subject he will reaC
the ad
If the article to be advertised is {
luxury, say, for instance, piano, {
different tack should be taken. Tn,
headline and the copy Immediately fol
lowing should be along educationa
lines, telling why piano should be il
every home, the good influence o
music and similar arguments.
But even in this kind of copy there
ought to be subheading in which the
name of the article advertised appears
followed by selling talk, for then il
addition to creating new buyers you
get the man or woman who is already
in the market for the article adver
tiSed.
don't believe that an irrelevant Of
trick catchline is justifiahle in news
paper copy. Most people are in a seri
Gus frame of mind when reading the
news of the day, and to be caught by
some tricky heading irritates then
and they quit reading.
In yellow journal" one that plays
up the news with sensational head
lines, a sensational heading for an ad
vertisement would get attention, be