Printers' Ink, September 9, 1926 (Vol. 136, No. 11)
A weekly issue of the New York advertising paper, filed for "The Story of Milton Feasley and the Censorship Committee", a short profile reprinted from The New Yorker after Feasley died of peritonitis in the same week as Valentino.
What it is
A weekly issue of the New York advertising paper, filed for "The Story of Milton Feasley and the Censorship Committee", a short profile reprinted from The New Yorker after Feasley died of peritonitis in the same week as Valentino. It calls him "the youthful father of halitosis". Writing for Listerine, he asked the sales force whether bad breath that cost you a social invitation was a reason to buy, and so, the writer says, began advertising through fear. The piece quotes the bridesmaid who is never a bride and the best friend who "will not tell you", and gives Feasley's own name for the method, "whisper copy". It ends with his reply to an agency censorship committee, which pointed to "Milk from contented cows". Other pieces: Richard Surrey on writing about products as if they were alive, and Harrison McJohnston on opening a sales letter with the reader's problem.
Why read it now
The profile names a method still in wide use: find an embarrassing problem the buyer had no word for, give it a name, and sell the fix. Research supports part of it. A 2015 meta-analysis by Tannenbaum and colleagues found that fear appeals do change attitudes and behaviour, most when the message also offers a clear action people believe they can take, which is the Listerine structure: the problem, then the bottle. The writer is candid about the cost, saying Feasley played on fear and vanity while also spreading a hygiene habit. What has dated or been disproved: Listerine's later claims against colds led the US Federal Trade Commission to order corrective advertising in the 1970s, a reminder that fear copy slides easily into claims a product cannot support. Shame-based copy also needs testing in the Gulf, where it can offend before it persuades. Surrey's advice to describe products as living things still helps flat copy. Use: if you name a hidden problem, give the reader one simple, credible action in the same ad, and check every claim of cure before it runs.
Passages worth keeping
Mr. Feasley was the youthful father of halitosis.
يُنسب إلى فيزلي أنه حوّل مصطلحًا طبيًا غير معروف إلى مشكلة يخشاها الناس، فصار اسم المشكلة جزءًا من الإعلان.
Whereupon, it is said, was born the principle of advertising through fear, of telling people disagreeable truths about themselves.
بدأ الإعلان القائم على الخوف حين صار المعلن يخبر الناس بحقائق مزعجة عن أنفسهم لا يخبرهم بها أحد.
Fear and vanity and such human emotions he played on, but it must be said that he persuaded millions to rinse their mouths and introduced sanitation where it had never been thought of before.
استغل فيزلي الخوف والغرور، لكنه في المقابل جعل ملايين الناس يعتادون العناية بنظافة الفم، فالكاتب يرى الأمرين معًا.
A horse on all four feet is tame.
الصورة الساكنة المتوازنة لا تشد العين، أما الحركة وعدم الاتزان المؤقت فيجذبان الانتباه في التصميم.
What is the basic problem that I am offering to help him solve?
قبل أن تكتب أول سطر في رسالة البيع، حدد المشكلة الأساسية عند القارئ التي يساعده منتجك على حلها.
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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