Printers' Ink, July 3, 1919 (Vol. 108, No. 1)
An issue of the New York advertising weekly.
What it is
An issue of the New York advertising weekly. The filed piece is Bruce Barton's "History as a Source of Advertising Ideas". Barton recalls selling a fifty-volume library by mail for a subscription book house: appeals to self-improvement and to pride in children and home brought leads at too high a cost, until a rushed quarter page showing a picture from the set, headed "This Is Marie Antoinette Riding To Her Death", pulled startling numbers of inquiries. He draws two lessons: a picture tells a story faster than copy, and readers want interesting facts they do not have to dig for. He adds an ad built on Mrs. Astor's turned back. Other pieces: Robert R. Updegraff on firms that plan 25 years ahead, stunt advertising, a campaign selling men's suits through women, and an N. W. Ayer cover ad about serial fiction for Magnolia Balm.
Why read it now
Barton's method still works: find a vivid, specific story inside the product and lead with it, instead of listing benefits. The Marie Antoinette ad beat the self-improvement and family-pride appeals because it offered curiosity and a picture, and modern work on curiosity gaps and on concrete images in ads points the same way. His second point, that people repeat interesting facts at the dinner table and the fact carries the brand with it, is close to what Jonah Berger calls social currency. His claim that human nature does not change is a useful rule for reading old campaigns, but too strong: habits, media and trust in advertisers do change. One warning: Barton admits the figures in his sample caption were invented and treats that lightly. Today a made-up statistic in an ad is a legal risk and costs trust. Use: before writing a campaign, go through the product's history, its users and its content, pull five true stories or facts a customer would repeat to a friend, and test each as a headline with a picture.
Passages worth keeping
This Is Marie Antoinette Riding To Her Death
عنوان الإعلان الذي نجح حيث فشلت النداءات العامة، فهو يفتح قصة مأساوية معروفة ويترك القارئ يريد معرفة بقيتها.
the average American has a large appetite for facts of historical or scientific interest, provided he can get those facts without having to do any work.
الناس يحبون المعلومة الطريفة بشرط أن تصلهم جاهزة، فلا يبذلون جهدًا في البحث عنها.
such an interesting fact is often a pin which fastens an advertisement onto the walls of his memory
المعلومة اللافتة تعمل مثل الدبوس الذي يثبّت الإعلان في الذاكرة مدة أطول مما كان سيبقى فيها.
if there is any one fact in the world that is sure it is that human nature does not change.
يرى بارتون أن سلوك الناس في الماضي يدل على سلوكهم اليوم، ولذلك يقرأ التاريخ ليتوقع ردود أفعال الجمهور.
Do you want to know how quickly the public will forget you if you cease to advertise? See what happened to poor old Moses.
الجمهور ينسى بسرعة حتى من أحسن إليه، فالتوقف عن الإعلان يعني أن يُنسى صاحبه.
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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