The Package of the Future (3 page images)
The pattern
This still is filed under House ad as portfolio.
Define
The firm advertises itself by showing the work, not by describing the work.
Mechanism
Proof by exhibit. The portfolio is the claim. Captions stay short. The pieces carry the argument.
Verdict
We sell craft and the buyer can judge from examples.
Why it works
The black ground strips away every context cue so each package reads as a bare object competing for the eye, which stages exactly the situation the copy describes on a dealer's shelf. Colour plates were expensive in 1918, so spending them on packaging rather than on illustration is itself the demonstration that the agency treats packaging as advertising. Copy is held to two paragraphs because the picture has already made the case, and the drop into (Con't.) uses the magazine insert format to pull the reader forward rather than closing the argument.
Steal this when
When the capability you are pitching is best proved by artefacts rather than description, such as packaging, identity or product design. Fill the page with a dense field of real work on a neutral ground and keep the copy to the principle alone.