The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-29
$. Stuart Riddle of Drennen Co. Talks About Art of
 Writing Advertisements
CUSTOMER MUST
 GET SATISFACTION
Advertisement Must Be Attractive and Must Prove to Reader That the Thing Advertised Is
 Good Investment

"A good ad must be profitable ad and profitable ad is one that convinces the person who reads it that the thing advertised is a good investment" Is the way s. Stuart Riddle, advertising manager of Drennen company depart ment stores, answered a question pro- pounded by an Age-Herald reporter yes terday afternoon.
 The Fundamental essentials of ad- vertising are truthfulness and continu- ity." said MT. Riddle, "by which mean that you must tell the truth and keep everlastingly at it. But profitable ad- vertising consists of more than that which appears in the newspaper.
 To use an illustration you might take an electrical current travelling over a circuit with several connections on it one doing one thing and one another In this illustration the advertisement itself as it appears in the newspaper is the dynamo that makes the electrici- ty. The advertisement must, as I have said, convince the man or woman who reads it that by answering 1t he or she will make a good investment, and il thereby starts the current of a circuit just like an electrical dynamo starts the current on a circuit of wires.
 First Point of Contact
 Probably the first point of contac in the circuit generated by that ad vertisement is the appearance of the ao itself If it is unattractive some force of the current generated is lost. Tht next contact probably would be tho window of the store. If the person whC answers the advertiseemnt comes to tlle store and does not see the article whicl was advertised in the window, another poor contact in the circuit is made ant more of the original force or pulling power of the ad is lost. The next poin1 of contact probably would be the ap- pearance of the display of goods inside the store, where again more force oi the circuit is lost or held as the cas, may be.
 'fhen the last and probably most im- portant point of contact in the entire circuit is the salesperson. If he or shs is untidy or is unslSilled in the art 0 salesmanship or perhaps knows noth ing about the advertisement or th' arguments it carried which brought tn customer to the store-then the circui in all probability is broken entirely ant the whole current generated by thu dynamo-ad passes out into nothingness But if all these points of contact in this circuit are good, the original desire tt buy as generated by the dynamo-ad is held intact, the prospect becomes q purchaser and the ad becomes profit able one. By this it can be seen that there could easily be good ads written which did not turn out to be prohtabis ads
 Make the Ad Attractive
 Tn writing ads for the Drennen stores I keep in mind the two essentials-truth end continuity-and then dress up theao in any way l like to make it attractive manufacturing as clever arguments as can to convince the person who will reao
 it that there is chance to make gooo investment. The way Drennen company ads are written Is by going to the buy CTS for the different departments. l ask each one to tell me what he has and tt talk to me just the same as If l wer' a customer and he was making sale then I go and write the advertisement for his department and use those san' arguments.
 'sIt is just as necessary to have an at of good appearance as to have a salesman of good appearance. If you want to sel fine, high priced piano would it b' wise to put salesman in charge wht was uncouth, badly dressed and used bat grammar? The same way with Dreamer company's ads. Before I became an as writer I was a window trimmer and write our ads from the artistic viewpoin just like I trimmed windows. First set ting up a centerpiece, as It might p' called, I work around it, balancing cut on each side of the page trying to mak' the type neatly arranged and balanced Customer Must Be Satisfied "rhe main policy of Drennen company, stores is that customers must be satisfied Therefore, it's advertisements must p' truthful. Fictitious comparative values are the worst injury a store can receive They are always found out, sooner o later by the person who reads the adver tisement. Any ad that will create ais trust or suspicion in the minds or 1t reader is a bad ad and will injure tn firm which sponsors it.
 My aim in writing ads for Dreamer company is first to create desire upol the part of the reader to buy; then prov to him that he would be making goo' investment if he bought now; next prov to him that only if he bought at Dren nens would his investment be good ant then keep. in order the points of contac in the circuit so that none of the fore of the ad will be lost between the tim 1 the person reads the ad and pays hi money to the salesperson
 ,, "Of course all advertising must be time l ly. An example of good advertising Is ; | a small piece of copy we ran in The Age | Herald just about a week before Christ mas. It stated we had a carload o | oranges for sale. Never before had w sold oranges here at the dry goods store and no one knew that oranges could b secured here except those who read tha ad. It was right before Christmas whel people were buying their holiday fruit and we sold that entire carload of orange
 the same morning The Age-Herald adver | tisement appeared"
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