Le Courrier Français - poster
The pattern
This still is filed under Lettered cover hook.
Define
The cover is the hook, and the hook is lettering: a title treated as an image.
Mechanism
Type as bait. The words are drawn so they stop the hand before the contents are known.
Verdict
A journal, book, or issue must sell itself on a rack or a feed
Why it works
Chéret advertises the reader's reaction instead of the product's contents, which is the only workable move for a title whose contents change every week. The paper is held open but angled away from the viewer and its type is drawn as unreadable texture, so the joke is deliberately withheld - all you get is the evidence that it worked on her. The leering old man reading over her shoulder doubles the reaction and hints at the paper's off-colour register without a word of copy. The unusually sketchy handling, with bare paper left showing, is itself a signal: this is a bohemian art paper, and the poster refuses to look finished.
Steal this when
A media or entertainment product whose content changes every issue, so you literally cannot advertise the content. Show the effect on one person's face, withhold the thing itself, and let the drawing style carry the publication's register.