The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-01-23

FRANK Armstrong, OF LHe~5-fASSo-
ciated Advertising Clubs of Iowa:
Merchants must develop regular GUS
toners. They can't build success
on one-time sales. That Is why
Notwithstanding has become q
over the United States.
The army OF the simple truth Is
putting out Of business the old-style
advertising that reached its pinnacle
in q Kansas town whore one mer-
chant hung big sign over his door,
bankrupt Sale;;" a competitor two
doors away started a flank attack
with sign reading. Closing Out
Sale and the poor fellow in the
middle of this scream-sandwlch
hoisted the banner. Main En-
trance"
Samson go. a cheap hair cut, but
it cost him more in the long run.
Ben Franklin warned against snap
ping at too big bargain. Yet al
legged special values are tempting
and when the merchant finds the
people respond to big claims, the
natural tendency is to enlarge the
claims.
This element of human nature 10
probably responsible for the ever
increasing reductions noted in COM
parative prices where better adver-
Using bureaus have not been at
work. Even In these more favor
ably situated localities. there are
some merchants afflicted like the
janitor Governor Whitman Of New
York tells about. The governor had
business in one of the large office
blocks and was in and out several
times during the morning. He mo-
ticed q colored janitor riding up
each time and finally asked him how
It happened that they never caught
the same elevator going down. The
tanitor replied .hs. he was washing
windows on the twelfth floor. and
''lost his holt once In awhile.
Truth Prevails.
Through the work OF the bureaus
and their parent advertising clubs,
fewer merchants are falling on the
truth wagon every year. and more
are joining the ranks who believe
that strict honesty is essential In
every advertising statement.
We are beginning to realize more
fully that advertising is power, while
the control of advertising is respon-
sibility..
The advertising man has magma
ton. His job is to stimulate thought.
He must visualize the goods or the
service offered to the reader-make
him see it in relation to the advan-
tages assured by possession. This
wifi explain why false statements In
the advertising are certain to pro-
duce dissatisfaction with the result
Advertising is the first business to
clean up from within. remember
when tho nov famous standards or
practice were first adopted at the
Baltimore convention. most people
regarded them like other harmless
resolutions. But when the boys
went home from that convention and
began translating those standards
into everyday practice, the attention
Of the business world was arrested.
From that day to this, the work has
gone forward with never a stop,
never a wavering moments hesita-
ton.
The cause Of truth gains momen-
tl1m with every honest success. In
stance after instance are on record
where the old fiamboyant style OF
advertising was discontinued and a
sale conducted successfully through
telling the unvarnished truth about
the goods. Bureaus have been un-
able to learn of a single case where
II paid to lie, even though the adj
vertiser might seem to have gained
temporarily.
From this time on, merchants are
going to devote more space to news
about the goods and less to featur-
ing price. They are going to give
their patrons the interesting facts
about the store and build customers
instead of educating shoppers.
The man who sells customer on