Printers' Ink, January 31, 1929 (Vol. 146, No. 5)
A 176-page weekly issue.
What it is
A 176-page weekly issue. On page 68 a research manager at the D'Arcy agency asks where to find "The Penalty of Leadership", and the editors reprint the whole Cadillac ad, noting that its copy never names Cadillac or motor cars. The text argues that whoever leads in any field draws envy and denial, cites Whistler, Wagner and Fulton, and ends that what deserves to live, lives. The editors add Theodore MacManus's praise of it from his book The Sword-Arm of Business. Elsewhere: Emil Brisacher on copy that makes readers nod in agreement, with an Ivory bath ad and Studebaker's fear headline about a broken steering wheel; a jobber's salesman who says hardware dealers throw away eight of every twelve dealer helps; Bruce Barton proposing that each nation spend one battleship's cost advertising the Kellogg peace treaty; Lady Pepperell sheets sold in colours; and the Jantzen diving-girl trade-mark case.
Why read it now
The reprint is the reason to open this issue. "The Penalty of Leadership" is a brand ad: no specs, no price, only a claim of standing that readers attach to the car themselves. Long-term studies such as Binet and Field's back broad emotional advertising for market leaders over feature lists. The ad is often read as Cadillac's reply to rivals attacking its new V-8, and that is the usable lesson: a leader can answer attacks without naming the attacker or repeating the charge. The limits are plain. Only a real leader can run it; a challenger saying the same sounds vain. Its closing belief that merit always wins is not what modern evidence shows, where reach and distribution decide most market share. Brisacher's fear example holds when the ad also offers a way out, as Studebaker's did. The eight-in-twelve waste figure for dealer displays still applies to trade marketing. Use: when a competitor attacks, write one ad about the standard you set, with no mention of them.
Passages worth keeping
When a man’s work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few.
حين يصبح عملك معيارًا يقاس عليه الجميع، يصبح في الوقت نفسه هدفًا لسهام قلة حاسدة.
The leader is assailed because he is a leader, and the effort to equal him is merely added proof of that leadership.
الهجوم على الرائد سببه أنه رائد، ومحاولة المنافسين تقليده دليل إضافي على تفوقه.
It capitalizes all our dislikes and distastes for the imitator and the blusterer and by inferential suggestion centers all the opposite virtues on Cadillac.
الإعلان يستثمر نفور الناس من المقلد والمتبجح، ثم ينسب الفضائل المقابلة إلى كاديلاك بالإيحاء دون تصريح.
The desire of the advertiser to exploit his product is made secondary to the needs or interest of the potential user.
الإعلان الناجح يبدأ من حاجة القارئ واهتمامه، ورغبة المعلن في الحديث عن منتجه تأتي بعد ذلك.
Statesmen are still proceeding on the assumption that peace can be purchased for nothing.
الفكرة التي لا يُنفق على شرحها للناس وتذكيرهم بها تُنسى، ولو كانت معاهدة سلام.
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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