New Britain herald., 1929-07-17

He said the average man was ln- telligent, Hike the manager of a heavyweight fighter once said, he an't dumb he knows lot, but he cant think
 One Of the most vital things in advertising lies in the principle that every single fact in advertising has been known and proclaimed by some one in the business.
 Advertising has advanced but is still unorganized. Advertising facts are neither popular nor necessary. The advertising salesman cannot be bothered with science when he meets the prejudice of each particular prospect.
 One Target to Shoot At
 "A hundred million people are one target for 1,600,000 stores, trying to supply all these advertised articles and trying to last longer than the normal seven years, which figures ,ell us is the life of the average busi- ness.
 Against these targets the annual advertising expenditures are: Motion pictures eight million dollars, pro- grams six million, theaters F mil lion, bill posters 14 million, window and store displays 23 million, demon- strating and sampling 2S million, farm papers 33 million, electric and painted signs St million, novelties SC million, business papers 7S million, magazines BIO million, direct mail 570 million and newspapers S75 mil lion, q total Of two billion dollars a year for advertising.
 Averages are the absolute ruler in the field of advertising. The av- craze man is five feet seven, weighs l50 pounds and will live to be 53 years ola He marries in the tWcn- ties and has three children.
 He believes stiff drink plus two Quinine pills will cure a cold. That Masonry goes back to King Solo, mons time; that it is fatal to eat lobster and ice cream; that ali Swedes are slow thinkers; that red headed people are quick tempered; {; that morals were purer 20 years ago; that winters were longer, snoWs heavier and more frequent when he was boy; the average woman is of course that gentleman's wife.
 Each woman has some predispo- stion, prejudice or weakness that one advertiser above all others has deliberately or accidentally utilized as his appeal to women.
 When these weaknesses of one woman exist in quantity large enough to concern advertisers they are averages. Averages are as steadfast as gravity and always changing. Pads and fashions ruffle the surface while away down deep human nature swings in cycles. Ad- vertising hastens the cycles.
 Advertising can retard these cycles but advertisers can no more oppose, eliminate or replace these cycles than an electric fan change the temperature of a city.
 Fifty million people are still out of reach of public libraries. Where there are libraries, three books a year is the average.
 No Books in Many Homes
 "A recent survey showed A per cent of homes of children contained no books whatever.
 You must change your selling news. To the soldiers in the world war imperialism meant less than nothing, but when they shouted Kill the Kaiser hostilities took on a pro- fessional flavor
 50 many words are empty so far as the average man is concerned If all the advertisers of automobiles could not use a certain 10 words, automobiles could no longer be ad- vertised. These words are Out standing, achievement, acclaim, lux urious. stamina, grueling, supreme, thrilling and advance
 You must be simple in your ap- peal to the eye. Five of anything are all the eye can handle at one glance. Six objects take two sepa- rate looks. and II take three.
 Printed matter stands still. The eye moves. It cannot read while moving, it skips from top to top of an advertisement and the average advertiser must cater to these hops and stops
 Some Odd Statistics
 "Al pecuiarities average out so smoothly that we can ignore indi- viduals. The mail clerk in one large mail order house weighs the morn ing mail and multiplies by a given figure. Then he tells the treasurer the total dollars and cents of the load. He doesn't guess more than five dollars out of the way in an entire year.