Printers' Ink, August 3, 1916 (Vol. 96, No. 5): Goodrich Tire Advertising, by John E. Kennedy
The August 3, 1916 issue of Printers' Ink. The piece it is filed under, "Goodrich Tire Advertising, by John E. Kennedy", is a five-page paid advertisement Kennedy placed to sell his own copy service (pp. 69 to 73, "Instance No. 5" of a series).
What it is
The August 3, 1916 issue of Printers' Ink. The piece it is filed under, "Goodrich Tire Advertising, by John E. Kennedy", is a five-page paid advertisement Kennedy placed to sell his own copy service (pp. 69 to 73, "Instance No. 5" of a series). It reprints six consecutive contracts: two $2,500 orders for ten Goodrich ads each through the Mahin agency in 1914, a $750 order in 1915, a $20,000 half-time retainer, and a $40,000-a-year rate in 1916, closing with a letter of thanks from Goodrich vice-president H. E. Raymond. The issue's lead article, by an unnamed ex-copy man, shows how to suggest tastes and odors directly, by analogy, obliquely or by connotation, using Djer-Kiss, Whitman's and Dromedary Cocoanut ads. It also carries Charles Austin Bates against "canned copy", the rubber firms' new shoe soles, the Garver Brothers store and a failed ad for a family doctor.
Why read it now
Kennedy's ad is the lesson here. The man credited with "salesmanship in print" sells himself with almost no adjectives: he prints the client's own contracts in date order, so the rising fees make the argument, then lets the client's letter close it. That is reason-why copy applied to a service, and it fits the long-standing finding that buyers trust verifiable evidence more than self-description. The lead article holds up as well. Its rule, that piled-up adjectives tire the reader and that sensory claims work through analogy and pictures, is how food and fragrance advertising still works; Elder and Krishna (2010) found that copy engaging several senses raised perceived taste. What has dated: Kennedy's capital letters and boasting read like a sales circular, and the lead article opens with a racist joke that no reader today would accept. Bates's case against fixed space sizes also fits digital formats, where length can follow the argument. To use it: if you sell a service, publish the timeline of one client's repeat orders, with permission and in the client's words, instead of describing your quality.
Passages worth keeping
Its quality stands for itself, setting a standard for vigorous exploitation of a firm’s products, which has been to our entire satisfaction.
شهادة من نائب رئيس جودريتش تختم إعلان كينيدي، فالعميل هو من يحكم على الجودة لا الكاتب نفسه.
As a matter of fact, a taste or an odor can not be described at all. It can only be suggested; directly, by analogy, obliquely, or by connotation.
الطعم والرائحة لا يوصفان وصفًا مباشرًا، وإنما يُوحى بهما بالتشبيه أو التلميح أو ما تستدعيه الكلمات من معانٍ.
There is nothing which will tire a reader so quickly and so conclusively as the presentation of abstract qualities.
سرد الصفات المجردة أسرع ما يُتعب القارئ ويصرفه، فالقارئ يحتاج إلى صورة أو موقف ملموس.
Don’t emasculate the copy for the sake of utilizing a certain fixed space. And don’t buy more space than the story needs.
لا تقصّ النص ليناسب مساحة محددة سلفًا، ولا تشترِ مساحة أكبر مما تحتاجه الفكرة.
If a general store in a little burg of 1,015 people can do an annual business of not far from half a million dollars, there must be greater possibilities in small-town retailing than is commonly believed.
متجر في بلدة لا يتجاوز سكانها ألف نسمة يبيع بنحو نصف مليون دولار في السنة، فأسواق البلدات الصغيرة أكبر مما يظنه المصنعون.
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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