The Press. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1911. THE USES OF ADVERTISEMENT.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14237, 28 December 1911, Page 6

The Press. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1911. THE USES OF ADVERTISEMENT.

Mr Andrew Carnegie, who ought to bo an authority on the subject of' advertisement, hits slimmed up in a few -.svords the advantages of this practicfr, and tho best way to onsuro obtaining them. "If you sell a hat for a dol"Jar," says he, "you can sell it for two "dollars by marking it with your name "and by making tho public understand "that your name -is worth something." Tho great American financier evidently means that it is not enough to devote .plenty of money to the- frequent reproduction of a .stamp, a picture, or a trade-mark, and then to importune the traveller, the passer-by, or the reader, with tho sight of it, but that if ono wishes to inspire a customer with confidence, it* is necessary that tho name of the maker or seller of the articlo should appear to him to increase legitimately tho value of the goods. Mr Carnegio would insist that the essential ; principle of advertisement is honesty. But honesty will not be a good policy in this case unless it is able to express itself in a manner which is neat, piquant, witty, and, above all, clear and intelligible . to the many. Honesty must loam how to charm while it persuades, how to importune without being; a nuisa-nco. how to invent an expression or a picture that cleaves to the- memory; how to adopt with infinite suppleness tlio most varied forms, and those most appropriate to the intelligence of the general reader, or to tho environment in which it proposes to act. These forms will be nil tho better for being artistic up to a certain point, but here lies a danger — tho danger namely of developing the artistic side at tho expanse of tho practical, which t-iiouM In- carefully avoided. Ono of tho most original advertisements comes to us from Mr Carnegie's adopted country. A certain hatter of Baltimore published in the newspapers an announcement addressed "To the " wives of condomned criminals.;' Ho desired, ho said, to mako a most important communication to these unfortunate females. Ho had not to wait long. , .Wore a lady present w] herself. Tho hatter confided to he/his secret, and promised her n hundred dollars if it turned out to bo vahiablo. In ;v few days the condemned murderer was marched to"tho place of doom. In thoso days of public, execution (not electrocution), when tho cord was put round his neck tho victim was asked if he had anything to cay, before no died. '• Yes; • ; J have, exclaimed the murderer in a etentqrian voice, '' 1 -want to tell all tho "world that Mr Smith sells tho best

"hats in tho United States for two "dollars a piece. : ' Sir George Newnes, who died Inst year, always maintained that the phenomenal success of his paper '' Tit-bits" was duo first of all to tho intrinsic excellence of tho paper, and tho pleasure it thereby gave to.the public by careful editing, good literary taste, and tho enterprise and complete organisation of its news department. But his methods of advertisement were also most generous. Besides distributing to his fortunate readers such prizes as a set of furniture, carriage and pair, a service of plate, a house completely furnished, he also insured hw reader.? against death and accident. Ho entered into an arrangement with an insurance company whereby any woman who suffered injury in a railway accident, got a pension for herself or her heirs if there wan found in her possession a copy of '•Tit-bite" for tho day on which tho accident occurred. To pass from Europe to Japan we find that the advertiser there adapts himself to his environment by having recourse to metaphor or the weaknesses of human nature. "Our Hoods," Hayo ono, "are delivered to "our customers with the rapidity of.a "rifle bullet." "Our vinegar," says a firm of giccers, "is sharper than the "tongue of the most diabolical motber-in- "'' law in the world." Or, again, "Our " employees are as civil and complaisant ■' s as a father who wants to marry off "a family of penniless daughters." \Vheu the two great ships, tho Lusitania and the Manretania, wore first launched, they were seized upon as tho medium for advertisement by a firm of costumiers in Old Bond street. On board each bont they had three living "lay-figurc3," whose business it was to exhibit elegant costumes every day in the saloon. These "mannequins vivants" were accompanied by a representativo of the firm who showed patterns with prices, measured his customers, and transmitted their orders by "wireless." On their arrival the customers found their dresses finished and ready. One of these steamers, on the way from Now York, received tho news of tho death of King Edward ■■VII. by Marconigram. All tho English ladies onboard immediately ordered suits of mourning, which were all finished ready for them when they stepped ashore in England. Ono may conclude with an amusing example of what may be ■* called the counter-advertisement whfch,is attributed to a milliner of Copenhagen. This excellent tradeswoman was doing very well in selling big hats to ladies until a rival opened a shop close by, and sold hats whoso diameter was simply enormous, which she had specially imported from Paris. , The stream of custom was diverted at once to "tin's second shop, where these colossal structures could be bought. But tho little milliner's genius rose to the occasion. She sent over tho way to her rival, bought up all the most enormous hats in stock and distributed ti icm gratis to tho market Women. The result; was simply prodigious. The fair customers seeing oyery fish-wife in , tho place "hatted" like themselves, atonco decided that big hats were vulgar and fit only for the women of the lower orders, and returned in whole battalions to their allegiance to their former modiste.