Evening star., 1923-01-12

Washington is awaking to discover
that what statesmen have been call
ing by the jawbreaking name ''propa-
ganda" is just plain. old-fashioned
advertising. The Advertising Commits
sion of the Associated Adver-
tising Clubs of America-the en-
bodiment of all that is wise and
expert and full Of knowledge in pub
| licity-has come here to tell each
other and tell the world" that the
greatest of the graces is advertising.
And, as if to echo their doctrines,
today's cable from London tells OF
the forced sale of famous old shoe
blacking manufacturing establish
ment in that metropolis. Day &
Martin-made famous by Dickens in
his novels. The sole cause OF the fall
ure was that il had refused to ad-
vertise. That is the statement of its
general manager. He declares that its
stockholders were opposed to spend
ing anything for advertising. and
now the business has dwindled,
resurrected by judicious publicity. 1t
is getting publicity through its mon
strous failure to comprehend that an
advertisement in a Dickens novel a
century ago is not sufficiently alive
for present-day profits.
u X X X
The shoe blacking is just as good
today as 1t was in the time of Dickens.
1t makes the leather soft. IL makes it
black, 1t gives it a mirror-like polish.
and there is no other backing that is
better. But today's population does
not get its information of shoe polish
from novels a century old; the peo-
pie of today read the newspapers and
magazines.
The most egregious blunder made
by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his es-
says was that in which he announced
that all that was necessary to win
success was to produce something
little better than anybody else pro-
duced. and. though YOU hid yourself
in the midst of a wilderness, the
world would soon make beaten path
to your retreat. Not only did he theo-
rize that advertising was unneces-
sary. but he believed that merit, like
virtue, Is it's own reward-its own
guarantee of success. That is all that
a last century New England philoso-
pher knew about business. Todays
bootblack might enlighten him. II
questioned as to why he shines shoes
than Day & Martins. The boot
black would laugh at the notion that
backing he had never heard OF
was good, simply because novel he
| had never read had said so. nun
dred years ago. But the SNUG British
stockholders knew that what was
good enough for their fathers was
bally good to the end of the world"
The British worship antiquity, almost
with oriental faith. Hence. in this
case, the forced sale of the good name
and the lost fame are wholly attrio-
uted by It's handicapped manager to
lack of modern advertising.
There used TO be a good deal Of
that sort of conservatism" even in
America, but not so much in recent
decades. The firm with the Day &
Martin blindness goes to the dick
ems" long before a century, in on
ward pushing competition.
The best advertised man in Amer
let today is a Frenchman-Coue-
he has the secret which underlies
success in all advertising. Coue tells
US that the strongest motive in hu-
man life is lima gination. and he is
right. The advertisement stimulates
ina gination in the reader-incites,
through that imagination. vision of
delight or longing to get whatever
is advertised. Every successful ad-
veritsement can be subjected to just
that test. It may contain a world of
facts and a logical argument and an
exact draught of all the mechanics
of the thing advertised, but IL 1t
lacks that appeal to the human
imagination to create the desire to
possess what is advertised it is dead,
Coue himself demonstrates that prin-
SSple by avoiding details of how his
formula works. while he excites won
der and interest and craving for it's
results. There is no difference. then.
between the psychology of selling
shoe polish or selling health-it is
al in exciting wholesome vision of
power to accomplish, with what is
offered. That comes only by telling
| by Internationally letting your light
so shine that men seeing your good
works" want the same. power. Then
they buy
x X X X
Advertising is not a mere trick of