AGRICULTURAL ADVERTISING Established 1894. Devoted to the Study of Every Phase and Medium of Advertising and Business Making May 1913 Editorial IN A CERTAIN EASTERN CITY there is a department store which bears down very strongly in its publicity on its guarantee of satisfaction and honest service. It's mighty fine advertising and, undoubtedly, would make this store the most popular in its town, except for one thing. The store management-the actions of the employes, the whole spirit of transactions made and of after-dealing with customers-all give the lie to the honest tone and willing spirit implied by the advertising copy. The advertising department writes to its own ideals. A young man in this city decided to buy a motorcycle. He went to this store, encouraged by all the printed promises, fully convinced that he would get a perfectly square deal. Now when the motorcycle was delivered the young man found something vitally wrong with the coaster brake-a fault that made the machine valueless without the proper amount of repair. Having in mind the square-deal advertising of the house, the disappointed purchaser explained his difficulties, addressing his letter to the store and asking what steps he should take to get his wheel in proper shape. No letter came in answer to his complaint, and after waiting a more-than-reasonable length of time he wrote again. In answer to this letter a letter finally came from their lawyer who was located in a different part of the city, which told him that he had no recourse and that if he attempted litigation he would most certain ly be worsted in the courts. Mind you, not a single line from the store. No apology, no attempt at conciliation-just this blunt, bluffing letter from the firm's attorney. The boy who relates this incident naturally feels that his confidence has been abused. And the amount of undesirable advertising this house may get from this source alone would certainly offset the small amount of money that would have been necessary to make the required repairs on this machine. As old Jake Spiffins used to say, "It's the principle of the thing." But it is only good in a merchandising institution when it is lived up to from president to shipping clerk. 299313 Yes, The Farmer Reads Four In the Year THE FAMILIAR OBJECTION ON THE PART OF ADVERTISERS to going after the farmer's trade in the summer is that the farmer is too busy preparing for his harvest to spare time to read his favorite Farm Paper. This objection has simmered down much in late years. But Farm Paper publishers still have to meet it occasionally. The farmer himself has changed. He most assuredly does not go to bed at dusk and arise by the glow of a lantern. He is not of the same type as the farmer who played host to a wandering wayfarer, in return for which said wayfarer was to help him cut oats the following morning. The wayfarer had enjoyed probably two or three hours of sleep in the garret when the farmer aroused him by a tremendous pounding on the door. “Come on, we are ready to cut oats," said the farmer. The Knight and the Dirt Road gazed out the window to the inky blackness of the night. Then turned to the farmer and said in a cautious whisper: "Are they tame oats or wild oats?" "They are tame oats, of course," replied the farmer. The wayfarer said: "Then why sneak up on them in the dark?” The modern farmer cuts his oats and harvests his grain in daylight. And even in his busiest season he still has time to take the wrapper off his favorite Farm Paper and to read it for all the good things it holds, to actually help him in his daily work. And mind you the farm publication in summer is seasonable too. It tells him things he needs to know just at that time. Its stock news and crop reports are valuable, timely information. There are many things he buys in the summer. The modern, better basis of farm home living means that there are special summer requirements as well as winter needs. Farm Paper advertising, to realize its full measure of success, should be consistently planned and should be consecutive. It will not do to judge the farmer today by ancient and time-punctured fallacies. Business Writing and Journalism ONCE UPON A TIME the ad writer stacked up very poorly in contrast with the journalist. And "journalist" was a blanket term used to cover the entire editorial and reportorial forces. A "gentleman connected with the press" was disposed to look with derision and contumely upon his less pretentious brother who wrote the store news or drew a humble stipend as the one-man "literary department" of some advertising agency. I was talking with a well known former editorial writer the other day and asked him frankly why nowadays it appeared that straight newspaper work, as a class, attracted so much smaller a percentage of real capable, ambitious young chaps than it had done in former years. And why so many more young men are going into the profession of advertising nowadays. He said that, in the first place, newspaper salaries are proportionately smaller, the work is hard and the opportunity for individual glory is far less since newspapers are wedded to new theories in the way of time-saving organization and eliminating those things that used to be considered the essential to the spectacular "scoop" or "beat." This man also said that two of the most successful and best-paid reporters in New York never write a line of copy for their paper. They simply telephone in the material, the rawest details, and some one more gifted with writing ability but perhaps with less "nose for news' writes the style into it. Scores of newspaper men have come in and fitted into advertising work and their reportorial ability has proved valuable in analyzing the advertiser's proposition. They also have learned to meet men and get the facts-an important advertising qualification. Their writing ability, of course, is of great value. The fault most frequently fallen into by newspaper writers who have turned ad men is the fact that they usually write too rapidly-relying on editorial revision, instead of doing the polishing themselves. Thus the more or less despised post of advertising man as it stood twenty years ago, has become the coveted goal of the newspaper man who realizes that it stands for a moneyed position-that it is a job of big things, and it offers a permanent future. The EVERY YEAR THE ASSOCIATED ADVERTISING CLUBS OF AMERICA shows better progress in its Conventions. Every year the class of men who attend and take active part in the Convention represents a still higher class of national business men whose words are proved and practical. It sometimes seems questionable whether the average member of an Ad Club really places the proper value on the services, the unbounded enthusiasm-the actual devotion-of the men at the head who have done so much to build, from a few scattering hundreds, a National organization of thousands; to eliminate to such a great extent the over-done play features that characterized some of the earlier meetings. One of the biggest and best things the Association did was last year at Dallas to eliminate from future meetings the contests between different cities who wish to be selected as the Convention City for the following year. No doubt a lot of good fun was gotten from these contests; also perhaps some hard feeling was indulged in. But, anyhow, the business of the Advertising Convention should be along the lines of mutual help, the interchange of valuable ideas. The number of days selected for the Convention are altogether too few to admit of playing during the regular working hours of the body. President Coleman, in a recent personal conversation, announced his determination of locking all but members in the Armory during the sessions. Whether or not this threat is literal, it seems to be pretty definitely determined by all who are going, to make this a practical, business-like, productive Convention all the way through. The Advertising Club of Chicago is making great preparations to attend. A De Luxe Special-the official Convention train-will be run by the Pennsylvania Lines with every provision included for the comfort and luxury of the Chicago Club, as well as the delegations from Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Peoria and other surrounding cities. Baltimore is making remarkable preparations for the reception and entertainment of guests. And, all in all, the affair promises to be "Some Convention." |