Printers' Ink, February 5, 1896 (Vol. 14, No. 6)
A weekly issue of the New York journal for advertisers published by Geo. P. Rowell & Co., filed for the first of Charles Austin Bates's "Advertisement Writing" talks.
What it is
A weekly issue of the New York journal for advertisers published by Geo. P. Rowell & Co., filed for the first of Charles Austin Bates's "Advertisement Writing" talks. In one page Bates argues that ad writing is learned through experience, not genius, that advertising is "just as certain as medicine or law", and that weak copy in valuable space is false economy; he closes with his price list. His criticism department says the only way to make ads believed is to make them true, tells a bicycle-lamp maker to keep his money-back guarantee, and separates Barnum's paid-for humbug from lying about goods. Other pieces: L. J. Vance on stockbrokers' ads, V. B. Palmer's 1851 rules for business men, "Profitable Stories" on St. Jacob's Oil, Hood's Sarsaparilla and Royal Baking Powder, a doubtful look at free samples, and St. Louis papers refusing to disclose circulation.
Why read it now
Bates's case for truth is the part that holds, and he makes it on business grounds, not moral ones: a false claim brings the goods back and the customer does not return. Modern evidence agrees. Trust drives repeat purchase, and advertising law in most markets now requires claims to be substantiated. His guarantee logic still works as a test: if you will not stand behind a claim with a refund, do not print it. The sampling article's warning, that people take anything marked free and that demand for samples is not demand for the product, matches what marketers see with giveaway leads today. What has dated: his certainty that advertising is as predictable as medicine, which S. Roland Hall disputed in the same journal thirty years later; the patent medicines that fill "Profitable Stories"; and Palmer's promise that the merchant who advertises freely "never fails". Bates is also selling his own services on the page. Use: before a claim goes into an ad, ask whether you would attach a money-back guarantee to it, and cut it if the answer is no.
Passages worth keeping
I believe more in training than I do in natural ability.
الكاتب الجيد يُصنع بالتدريب والخبرة أكثر مما يولد موهوبًا، فالعبقرية وحدها لا تصنع عملًا منتظمًا.
The man who will fill valuable advertising space with a weak advertisement just because a good advertisement would cost something, is making an unreasonable and unbusiness-like mistake.
دفع ثمن مساحة غالية ثم ملؤها بنص ضعيف لتوفير أجر الكاتب خسارة لا توفير.
There is no use printing advertisements that people do not believe. The only way to make them believe them is to make them true.
الإعلان الذي لا يصدقه الناس لا فائدة منه، والطريق الوحيد إلى تصديقهم أن يكون الكلام صحيحًا.
If it was good, it would stand the guarantee.
المنتج الجيد لا يخشى ضمان استرداد المال، ومن يريد حذف الضمان يشك في منتجه.
Most people want to get something for nothing.
كثرة الطلب على العينات المجانية لا تعني أن الناس سيشترون المنتج، فكثيرون يأخذون كل ما هو مجاني.
The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.
What it teaches best
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