Data as proof

The pattern

This still is filed under Data as proof.

Define

A chart, map, or count that is the argument, not an illustration next to the argument.

Mechanism

Sighted evidence. The reader is asked to believe their eyes: a bar, a share, a spread on a map.

Verdict

The claim is comparative or quantitative and the figure can be read without a caption doing the sell.

Why it works

The page is mostly a prize table: 7705 winning numbers sharing 90000 Egyptian pounds, listed prize by prize, so the reader counts his chances instead of taking a slogan on trust. The ticket price sits right under the table, with a sixth of a ticket for 10 piasters, so the gap between a small stake and a large pool is plain. The opening line ties the gamble to building the largest charity hospital in Egypt, which gives a respectable reader permission to buy.

The big idea

A charity draw for the largest hospital in Egypt and the East, sold on its prize table: 7,705 winning numbers, so a 10-piaster sixth feels like a real chance.

The offer

Tickets at 60 piasters, a sixth at 10 piasters, draw on 31 December 1932. Sold at post offices, banks and the society's offices in Alexandria and on Emad al-Din Street, Cairo.

The proof

A prize table listing every tier: a first prize of 18,000 pounds, then 3,600, 2,400, 1,200 and 600, down to 4,600 prizes of 3 pounds, 90,000 pounds in all.

Lines from the ad

يانصيب

Lottery

لأكبر مستشفى خيري بالقطر المصرى والشرق

For the largest charity hospital in Egypt and the East

ثمن التذكرة ٦٠ قرشا صاغا وسدس التذكرة ١٠ قروش صاغ

Ticket price 60 piasters, a sixth of a ticket 10 piasters

Steal this when

Use it when a fundraising draw or prize promotion needs to show the full prize spread and a low entry price in one table.

The emotion

Written to Hope. It does neither clearly.

It prints every prize tier down to 4,600 prizes of 3 pounds beside a 10-piaster sixth, yet shows no count of tickets sold, so prizes are countable but the odds are not.