The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-30
Sam Phillips Talks On Meth cd Used By Burgers In
 Writing Advertisements
NECESSARY TO HAVE
 SOMETHING TO SAY
Store Does Not Advertise Unless It Is Believed Articles Are On Hand Which Are Real Bargains.
 Cites Recent Example

Every ad writer must first be good merchant before his ad will prove profitable,n Is the way Sam Phillips, ad writer of the Burger dry goods stores, answered an Age-Herald re- porter yesterday when asked what made his ads bring results.
 Before I ever wrote ads" he said, "l worked in department store. have been connected with this busi- ness ever since I was a kid and l have had some experience in practically ev- cry department T eannot-and l do not believ, anybody else can--write good ad of some line of merchandise in this department store unless l am good merchant and know all there is to know about that line of goods myself from a merchants standpoint
 "For the amount of money Burgers spend in advertising I believe we get better results than anybody in town. Exactly why. I do not know. and if I did perhaps I would not want to say. But one thing is sure and that is that the women of this town know whole lot more about the goods they buy than some advertising men think they do. They know when an article does not come up to the impression created by the advertisement of 1t and Burger s advertising always possesses both ac- curacy and truthfulness. We don't pub fish misleading ads because 1t doesn' t pay to do so.
 Fictitious Comparative Values
 "The main fault of the advertise ments of this town. in my estimation. Is the tendency to publish fictitious comparative values. There is a certain class of trade tkat Is caught by that kind of advertising and it is well worth catering to; so that when one of the stores begins it tho rest are almost compelled to follow suit, at least to some extent in order to hold their own. To some people. no matter though they may know better themselves, if they see an article advertised as being worth s10 and on sale for 80, that is a good bargain and it is impossible for them to break the ideas hold all though they know they can buy the same article at some other store for s5 also. That class of business Is surprisingly large and when one store starts to cater to it by quoting fic- titous values the rest are compelled to do So for self preservation. That condition has brought about in this town a greater or less degree of mis- representation in the ads of the city and the productive results of the ads are thereby decreased compared with h., al. tising were conducted upon a strictly honest scale.
 There are many conditions that en ter into the success of an ad. Weather often makes or kills the whole effect of an advertisement and there are other similar conditions which bear upon 1t and which are not within the control of the ad7 writer. Generaly speaking, however, any ad which tells of some thing that people want when they want 1t. and convinces them that it is a good investment will bring results which vii! be satisfactory.
 "The importance of window displays store displays and familiarity Of the salespeople with the ads cannot be over q estimated. They must all work along the same line and in the same direction,
 Recent Example of Good Ad
 An example of good Burger ad was the one we ran in the newspapers on Christmas day, the only ad on that day announcing a special sale. The re- suit was that the day after Christmas we did as large, if not a larger, business than any day before, although as a rule the first few days after Christmas are extremely dull.
 Tt is not literary ability or grammsr that gives pulling power to an ad- vertisement, although both must be present to reasonable extent But the real value of an ad lies in the amount of nowledge-busines knowledge the man who wrote the ad had about the article he was advertising.
 We make it rule here never to advertise unless we nave something to advertise. That is, we do not advertise unless we have something to put before the people as a good investment and q desirable investment. I am member of the firm and in q way it Is my money which is going out for advertising, SC that when l write an ad I want to feel sure that I have had something to write about"