THE ART OF ADVERTISING.
IT is quite time that a handbook for advertisers was issued for the guidance of persons who have something they wish to bring before the public, and who generally go the wrong way to work to accomplish their object. Most tradesmen are now con- vinced that if they do not want to be distanced by competitors they must advertise. There is no plan equal to it for making money rapidly. Nor need it always be, though it too often is, wretched, insincere puffing. The man who has the means to ad- vertise systematically, and who uses his means with judgment, is tolerably certain, even though he should happen to deserve it, of realizing a handsome profit. Many begin the enter- prise, but turn back in alarm when they have spent a certain sum, and leave others to gather the crop they have sown. Successful advertising requires courage, tact, ingenuity, and perseverance. For a certain time the advertiser must be content to see his money lying idle, but the oftener his name is before the public the more certain he is of ultimate success. Every one is acquainted with firms which have made a world-wide name, and
extended branches into almost every corner of the earth, simply by constantly advertising. The extravagant form of advertising is that pursued by the proprietors of Holloway's pills, whose an- nouncement is found in every paper that will take it throughout the world. It is issued regularly in the native Chinese papers, and the picture of the group of "screws " being cured by Holloway himself is as well known in Japan as it is here. It is not for adver- tisers of this class that a handbook is needed, but for persons wbo have only a little money to spend, and who wish to lay it out to the best advantage. A small book was lately published by Mr. Smith, acting manager at the Adelphi Theatre, the title of which is promising—Advertise—How f When ? W here t The work turns out to be a commonplace catchpenny. Mr. Smith understands something about theatrical advertising and puffing, as is shown by the constant references to his own "shop" throughout the book, but there is nothing here that will be of service to the great body of advertisers. What is even more provoking, there is little or nothing worth reading about the oddities of advertising—a subject which might have advantage- ously filled a good many of the pages occupied with green-room small-talk. Mr. Smith prints a few old play bills, but to the news- papers of his own time he does not appear to have paid any attention. His suggestion that bakers should stamp their names on their loaves and confectioners theirs on twelfth-cakes, is not very new and not very brilliant. But it is nearly the brightest he has to offer.
Profitable advertising is an art. A man feels his way to it and masters it by slow degrees. It does not always depend on the mere amount of money he is prepared to spend. There are some who think that any kind of announcement in the public papers will serve their purpose ; and thus we find schoolmasters addressing us in broken English, and tutors who are unable to write intelligibly offering to prepare pupils for honours. In some cases bad grammar is rather an advantage than otherwise, as giving a man a speciality by which he becomes known ; but it can hardly serve the purpose of the principal of an academy to announce that his " terms is low." The expression would do no harm to Mr. E. T. Smith, whose announcements are often read for the mere sake of their eccentricities. No one was surprised when he lately stated that "the dog, horse, and gun are the favourites of every Englishman, and the former, in fact, of every English lady," or when he added :—
"It has been the practice of getting up dog shows, and conducting the exhibition thereof by various parties, in such a manner that has made the exhibition more a pain to the exhibitors of the animals than the pleasure of carrying off a prize awarded by the judges, and often such prizes have never reached the hands of the noble exhibitors."
Mr. Smith's friends are always contented to hunt for his meaning, and half the fun would be gone if, by any unlucky chance, he should ever master Lindley Murray. The gentleman who advertised lately that his theatre in the Westminster road could be reached "without leaving the parks " is equally happy in inaccuracies. Few could imitate this style with advantage, any more than they could the "sell" advertisements, as Punch has called them, which begin with an anecdote about the Shah of Persia, and end with recommending a patent cold cream. To make these advertisements successful, the introduction should be changed occasionally. We all know, for instance, what is coming when we • meet with the following lines :—
" TO PARENTS and GUARDIANS.—The return of youth to their respective boarding schools induces a solicitude for their personal com- fort and attraction," which can, of course, only be satisfied by the use of the in- valuable macassar oil. When, again, we are warned by the wild waves to keep up our Channel fleet, we are aware that an injunction to buy our tea at Is. 8d. comes a little lower down. It is, however, upon what is called the catch- line that ingenious advertisers now chiefly depend. Nothing can be more effective than the following :—" To persons who have lost an eye." The advertiser goes on to state that eyes of his manufacture can be fixed in without the least trouble, and can be taken out and dusted as often as may be necessary. What is more wonderful still, the advertiser does not require to measure one for an eye. " Persons who cannot leave their homes, need but send the colour of their eye and their photographic portrait to —." Sometimes it happens that sober trade announcements are made ludicrous by an odd juxtaposition of words. The following looks as though some one had been making up cross readings :— " Stephen Glover's exercises, for perfecting the execution :—Away with Melancholy, on scales ; Da, du, Liegst, on the turn ; Long, long ago, on the shake ; Hop told a flattering tale, on reversed positions ; Cease your Funning, for strengthening the fingers."
There was an auctioneer in the country who always an- nounced his sales in rhyme after the following manner :- "First Tuesday in the next October,
Now do not doubt but we'll be sober !
If Providence permits us action, You may depend upon At the stall That's occupied by William Hall."
Equally noteworthy are the laboured, magniloquent advertise- ments which generally usher in a new discovery to the world. A fine example appeared a little time back in the Times. It was headed, " The Pneumoclime, or Climate for the Lungs." Most persons probably read a little way down to find out what this was. The exordium was very solemnly couched.
" That this announcement differs widely from any ordinary advertise- ment, and has for its paramount object to extend and perpetuate the benefits of a remedy of great efficacy, it will be the wisdom of all per- sons liable to attacks in their breath-passages, and of all their friends, clearly to discern. It will be to their own injury (as it has already cost thousands their lives) if they shall become the dupes of their own or others' prejudice as to the character of this climatic agent, and the motives with which it has, from the first., been offered to the public."
After this warning it was almost a relief to find that the Pneumoclime is only a new respirator, designed to study the "climatic pathology of the chest." The advertisement alto- gether was a model of heavy writing, such as is found to produce an immense effect on the unlettered, and equals the spirit merchant, who began his altnanack for 1803 with the announcement : —" Death, the leveller, has been active during the last twelvemonth ; the ravages of his scythe have been ruthless, and few of us but have felt them." Upon his own showing, the trader can have but few customers left. An example of the very opposite of this style is, or was, ac- cording to Mr. Smith, to be seen at a public-house somewhere in London. A figure of Britannia was painted in a reclining posi- tion over the door, and underneath it were the words—" Pray sup-Porter."
These advertisements have the merit of being harmless, even when they are not amusing, but there is another class which pro- duces incalculable mischief. We do not refer to the shameless aunouncements of impudent quacks, which provincial journals especially will insert on any terms, and at the quack's own price. We allude to the advertisement of the professional and well- known swindler, who wants to borrow 5/. for three days, and will give 101. interest for the loan of it. There are always about a dozen of thess offers in a certain penny morning paper, and their repetition proves that the trade flourishes notwithstanding all the exposures that have been made and all the warnings that have been given. It is extraordinary how easily people are befooled by an advertisement. If they saw the same notice in writing they would laugh at it and pass by ; but type gives it a respectable and honest appearance. "Print settles it," as Hazlitt said, when speaking of the difference in the look of one's writings in manuscript and in proof. It gives an air of authority to the weakest effusion, and places the rogue on a level with the most upright tradesman. Many persons have a vague idea that an advertisement is, in some way, vouched for by the paper in which it appears. Editors are not responsible for this; but it is a consideration which ought to suffice to exclude notoriously dishonest advertisements from the columns where we now find them regularly. There is some excuse for the country paper, which is often obliged to grasp at every shilling to save it from atrophy, but a wealthy London journal might afford to set a good example to its small contem- poraries. The "clergyman in difficulties," who is desirous of getting a loan of 501. for one week only, for which security to the amount of 5001. and 251. interest will be given, ought not to have the chance of making his voice heard in the metropolitan journals. The Times leads the daily press iu this as in other respects. Its advertisements are actually edited, and quotations from the p per itself in praise of a book or anything else are not admitted upon any consideration. This is, perhaps, carrying a good principle to an extreme, for it denies an author or publisher the advantage which he might fairly gain from well-deserved praise. Still, it is a better course than the one adopted by other papers, which have been told over and over again that their "money.' advertisements are wicked snares. No incidental factcan prove the value of advertising more strongly than the amount of money which "humbugs" and impostors invest in it. If they find it profit- able, a fair dealing man is pretty sure to do so likewise. Alder- man Mechi recommends advertising as the foundation of a
AN AUCtION,
prosperous business, and Barnum—equally an authority orth hearing—declares that nothing can be done without it. A er- Users go in flocks, like sheep, and generally ask which paper has the largest circulation, not, as they ought to do, which paper is read most by educated men, who influence others, or by the special class they want to reach. Properly appealed to, there are few persons whom an advertisement cannot influence, and almost every, journal has special facilities of its own to offer. He who is a master of the art studies carefully all these points, and takes care not to be placed in the company of men who undertake to show you how to realize a fortune for half-a-crown. Trickery in advertising there must always be, but the system, upon the whole, is of immense service to all sections of the community—rogues and sharpers, of course, included.
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