The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1912-09-03
Ny
Competitor
se,ss
A Contest OF Ingenious
Advertising
By Philip BoswOrth
Ivvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvs

! young man. At that time we werl
cutting each others profits down to 8
minimum and sometimes to a loss
But there were virgin fields In thos'
days that had not been worked. Ont
might go into a western town with 9
new kind of goods to sell, and II they
We're salable he would make a gooG
profit on them. / served an appren
ticeship with large soap manufactur
ing concern and after having thorough
ly learned the business concluded to &c
to some western state and build up 8
trade In the goods with which ] was
familiar. settled in a town called
Farnsw0rth. the center of a country
that was rapidly growing In popula
ton.
l had been furnished with some
means for advertising and concluded
to attract attention by unique notices
| remember the first one | issued
considered very clever 1t was. Every
patriot uses Gunter's soap, especially
on Birthington's wash day" / wa
disappointed to find that the plain, un
educated people OF that region did not
see the humor Of my adj. for those who
mentioned 1t to me asked who Birth
ington was. After explaining to most
of the citizens Of the town that Birth.
ington's wash day was a transposition
of Washington's birthday l concluded
10 try something else.
One morning l noticed that | had q
rival in the soap business in the neigh.
boring town of Millville Not only had
| rival in the business. but in clever
advertising In a Millville newspaper
saw that f. B. Ketcham was selling
Southwick's soap. advertising it to
wash out freckles, leaving the skin
beautiful pink and white" l con.
sidered this ridiculous till a number
Of the freckled boys and girls Of the
town came into my store and asked if
l had any OF that soap that would get
away with freckles."
l made MY next effort more prac-
tical. l advertised Gunter's soap as
the ''whitest wash" a housewife could
use. This produced an immediate eff
feet, for several women came into the
store and bought my soap to use III
embarrassing their cellars.
The next advertisement Of Ketch-
ans that l noticed was after a storm
and consequent carrying away Of a
portion of the turnpike between Farms
worth and Millville by the giving way
of a culvert. Ketcham announced
that the washout had been effected by
a cake Of Southwick's soap having fail
en- out of the wagon of a farmer who
had just bought 1t and was carrying
1t to Farnsworth to wash away the
spots left by an application Of the Gun
ter article
The public didn't exactly understand
how a culvert could be washed out
with cake of soap weighing only a
few ounces. but the reference to spots
left by my goods was a stroke OF
genius on the part of Ketcham. 1t was
not at that time even the proper thing
to attack in an advertisement or other
wise any individual goods Indeed. !
had cause for legal action against
Ketcham for damages. So I concluded
to drive over to Millville and inform
him that If he did it again | would
hale him into court found his Of
fee in charge OF young woman. of
whom ! inquired when Mr.. Ketcham
would be In She asked me what |
wished to see him for. and | told her
that / was the agent for Gunters soap
at Farnsworth and would like to have
a conference with him with a view to
settling upon a method by which he
and | could do business without in1ur-
ing each other.
The young woman said that Mr..
Ketcham was out most of the time So
liciting orders for his soap and if in
stead Of waiting for him, which /
might have 70 do for some time,
would say to her anything | had to
communicate she would transmit 1t to
Mr.. Ketcham.
Every well" | said: please call his
attention to the fact that when he ad-
vertises that Gunter's soap leaves
spots, thus iniuring its sale. he lays
himself liable to suit for damages.
There is no law against his advertis-
ing that Southwick's soap has pro-
duced a washout or that 1t is a white
wash on the best soap in the market
so long as he doesn't cry down any
other article. Do you understand
am foil AR RofohovaU
"And say to him that If he will come
over to see me shall be happy to fix
with him scale of prices by which
we shall be governed. so that we won't
be cutting each others throats."
W-h-a-tr'
II mean that we shall not be under
selling each other There's plenty Of
room for both. hut If we fight each
other well both fail"
'I'll try to make him understand"
The girl. though she appeared to be
stupid. was rather pretty. As was
about to leave | concluded to pay her
a compliment. being little facedous
as well, so | said:
81 wouldn't use Southwick's soap on
my face If were you"
"Why not?" she asked.
swell. your complexion being perfect.
1t isn't necessary"
THAT won't wash" she replied
dropping into slang Compliments are
not in order in business"
"Good morning! Tell Mr.. Ketcham
to come over and see me-"
But Mr.. Ketcham did not come to
see me. On the contrary. he continued
the contest, with no quarter His next
announcement was that at trial be-
tween CUTTERS and Southwicks soaps
a cake of each WAS thrown into a tub
of water and Southwick's washed :un-
ter's clean out of the tub. Many peo-
pie understood enough of this to see
that the laugh was turned against me
Not only did my sales fall of, but
found that good many cakes Of the
Southwick article were finding their
way into Farnsworth. 1t seemed TO
me that must do something 10 get the
upper hand in the struggle or go out
OF business. So, after racking my
brain for awhile, | got a notice insert
ed in the newspapers of my town that
there was no use for our citizens TO
seek the seashore during the summer.
Ali they need do was to throw a cake
of Gunter's soap into Green's pond and
the latter, breaking on the shore, would
be quite equal to any sea foam.
What was my surprise. after my
caution. to see few days after this in
sertion a notice In a Millville paper
that the agent of Gunters soap at
Farnsworth had by mistake got hold of
a cake Of Southwick's soap and wash
ed himself out of business.
This was too much. 1t was a false,
malicious announcement At any rate.
many matter Of fact people would
90 Avou. nE.t.