Advertisement for Mecano (van Doesburg / I.K. Bonset)
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 kicker-then-name construction does in two lines what a headline usually needs a sentence for: the imperative Abonneert U op turns the title into the offer, so the reader meets the ask before the description. The type sizes descend in a straight ramp from the name to the fine print and then step back up for the addresses, which means the eye is delivered to the point of action rather than left drifting at the foot of the page. The body copy sells the object rather than the ideas - each number in a different colour, many reproductions - which gives a wholly abstract subject something physical to want. Note the editorial joke carried inside the copy: I.K. Bonset was van Doesburg's own Dada pseudonym, so the ad lists one man as two.
Steal this when
You are selling a subscription to something hard to describe. Lead with the imperative and the name, describe the physical artefact rather than the content, and put the buying addresses back in bold at the foot.