Exhibit in the column

The pattern

This still is filed under Exhibit in the column.

Define

An image is dropped into the column of type so the reader meets picture and argument in one scan.

Mechanism

In-flow exhibit. The figure is not a separate see fig. 2. It starts the paragraph. Eye and mind start together.

Verdict

Long copy must show as well as tell: a product cutaway, a before/after, a map in the story.

Why it works

The headline leads with a new technical feature, free wheeling, that most readers had never driven, so the copy has to teach before it sells. It does this with a small drawing of a cyclist dropped into the text column: everyone knows how a bicycle coasts without pedalling, and the car is explained as doing the same. The front view of the car with its headlamps throwing light gives the page one strong image, and the Latin HUPMOBILE bar at the foot fixes the name.

The big idea

The new Hupmobile coasts like a bicycle whose rider stops pedalling: the car keeps its speed while the engine idles, which saves fuel, oil and wear.

The offer

The new Hupmobile with free wheeling, which costs less than before despite its improvements. Ride one and test it yourself. Agents: Awlad A. G. Dabbas and Co., National Commercial Car Company, 4 Sharia Suleiman Pasha.

The proof

A worked example in the copy: at 80 kilometres an hour the engine turns only as if at 10 or 12, and gears change between second and top without touching the clutch.

Lines from the ad

سيارة هبموبيل الجديدة ذات العجلات الحرة

The new Hupmobile with free wheeling

اختبر الطيران على اجنحة العجلات

Try flying on the wings of the wheels

هذه هي العجلات الحرة

This is free wheeling

Steal this when

Use it when your product's selling point is a mechanism buyers have not used yet and one everyday object can explain it in a single picture.

The emotion

Written to Confusion. It makes the Say move.

'This is free wheeling' sits beside a cyclist coasting without pedalling, giving an unfamiliar term a plain meaning, then a figure: at 80 km an hour the engine turns as if at 10 or 12.