Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 76, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 January 1912 — THE PARABLE OF THE MAN WHO ADVERTISED [ARTICLE]

THE PARABLE OF THE MAN WHO ADVERTISED

Once upon a time there was a business man who resolved to advertise. He saw what others were accomplishing with direct mall matter, “spreads” in the magazines, bill-boards and other means of publicity, and he wanned to the thought of emulating their success. } .

So it came to pass that he hied himself to an advertising man and la.fd._his proposition before him. And the a. m., findhrg.it good and exceedingly fertile, recommended therefore a suitable campaign. The product and its appeal to the public were carefully studied, and letters, magazine ads. and other advertising prepared which would get the right point of contact. But the business man was not satisfied. “This letter doesn’t strike my fancy” and “that ad. wouldn’t sell goods to me in a thousand years" ani “I don’t like the picture that goes” with this folder” were some of the criticisms he made wheA the vaiious copy and layouts came before him.

Oh, he was the wise little gazaboo. He was fight there with a whallop when it came to advertising knowlelge, and when he got through revising things to suit his individual taste, their author knew that they were in-

■ deed orphans. Protests were of no avail. Pt was his money he was spending and he “guessed” he knew- good advertising when he saw it. You couldn’t fool him. People would buy what appealed to him,.and when his final O. It. went on i a ny advertising, it was right. But, sad to relate, likewise quite 1 obvious, the dear public did not seem ,to have the same taste as he. They found his advertising distinctly noninteresting and passed it by, also* lip: So the campaign turned out a failure and the business man becomes really quite peeved now when the I subject of “advertising” is men- ■ tioned. All ot which brings home this moral : —you can’t advertise to yourself and - expect to have more than one possible buyer.—The Layman Printer.

The uppermost idea in advertising is getting closer to things as they actually are, not as they are assumed to be.—Printer’s Ink. *