New-York tribune., 1920-10-08

| fcrvently sincere could have written this
advertisement, and yet it diminishes
nightly our desire to see "Way Down
East" If, on the other hand the ad
vertisement had simply said "Some of
the ice scenes are good" we would have
been eager to go. Now we should con-
stantly be comparing Griffith's poetic
vision as manifested in "Way Down
East" with "The Eve of St. Agnes"
rather than with "The Birth Of a Ma
tlon,' and it would spoil our evening.
We think that the quality which is least
frequently found in modern advertis
ing is the one which is most needed. We
reter to diftidence. 1t is worth a ton
of sincerity, and we have observed that
sincerity generally comes in Just such
quantities. If man advertises that his
$40 overcoats are not bad for the money
we would be tempted to buy But if he
says that they are even better than
those which sell elsewhere for 500 we
don't believe him, and his message is
lest upon US.
OF course, Mr.. Durstine knows a
great deal more about the general utility
of certain sorts of advertising than we
do. After all, it might be just as
we'll for us to practice little of the
dffidence Of which we have spoken SO
highly ard remember that probably the
man with the $40 overcoats was not in
, tent simply on selling one to us. Accord
| iNgly, the objection is entirely individual
Hhon We take issue with Mr.. Durst;ne
when he writes: "An exclusive jeweler
may say: Your inspection is invited
A garage keeper may say: Come in and
look US over The words used in the
jewelers. invitation help to create a
picture of dignity, taste and luxury,
with little touch of aloofncss, as befts
an establishment where everybody isn't
welcome. The words used in the garage
mans invitation give you a picture of a
f,Tn in jumpers wipine his hands on s.
piece of waste. Try interchang.ng the
pirate they become"
Not to US. Our feeling is that most
jewelry stores are too exclusive, any
way, and most garages not half
enough. Still, as we have said, the OBJ
lection is purely peronal and, more
than that, academic. Neither the jeweler
nor the garage man is going to get a
nickel out of US, no matter what he says
in his advertisement.
Nor do we react quite right to the
sort Of advertising which first attracts
the attention with some picture or
statement and then goes on with some
thing entirely irrelevant. Mr.. Durstino
says this is poor advertising, but we
invariably fall for it. Only last Friday
we noticed little picture of small
boy sitting on a cliff which overlooked
a harbor full of ships. In the caption
beneath we caught the words "At four
teen he wrote a DRAMA We wondered
which of the plays it was that we saw
last week. and then we went to the
beginning and found: "Alfred Tenny-
son, the English poet, wrote an epic of
5000 lines before he was twelve. At
fourteen he wrote a drama" Under
meath it said: Boys Wearmoor Norfolk
Suits With Extra Knickerb rbockers-$20" )"
Now, we know perfectly we'll that Ten
nyson never had q Wearmoor Norfo K
Suit, and if he had we don't suppose
it was the inspiring factor which set
him to writing dramas and epics, and
yet somehow the writer Of that adver-
tisement has managed to link the two
things in our mind tos such an extent
that we can't quite determine whether
we are sad because we can't get out en-
epic poem or because we can't get into
q Boys Wearmoor Norfolk Suit for $40.
1t may be observed that a reader is
likely to disagree here and there with
Mr.. Durstne's book. This shows how
much better it is than almost anything
else written on the same subject. We
can't understand enough of the others
to know whether we agree or not.