AMERICAN ADVERTISING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19412, 21 August 1926, Page 1 (Supplement)

AMERICAN ADVERTISING.

PUSH WITHOUT MODESTY. BY LADY ADAMS. There is a pamphlet, issued with the distinct approval of the Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles, entitled, " Advertising Did It." This tract explains that Los Angeles is made up of climate, oranges, lemons, movies, climate, missions, beaches, climate —and advertising. The pamphlet calls Los Angeles " the horntootingest town in tho world," and to the best of my knowledge, the pamphlet is right. Where the Chamber of Commerco leads, business men follow. " Dear Friend," wrote an unknown wholesale shoemaker to me the other day, " I am taking the liberty of addressing you. You may be one of our customers and you may not; if you are our customer, disregard this letter —if not, read every word—l am positive it will be of great interest to you. You wear shoes —of this lam sure; if you have a family, every member of your family wears shoes, and the shoe item in one's expense budget is a big item." And, of course, follows an offer to " allow yourself and your family to buy shoes at wholesale prices." A day or two later came another letter; this time not quite so gentle in its ways. " If the world owes you a'living, here's the way to collect it," it began. "You mechanics, carpenters, bricklayers, you plumbers, electricians, office men, and store employees, all you fellows who put in six days of hard work each week, and know which side of tho dollar the eagle roosts on—let me talk real estate to you straight from tho shoulder. Maybe you have been wanting to get hold of some real estate, but you figured it wasn't your game. You have seen the other fellow make a killing, but you figured it was always tho other fellow who was lucky. Well, sir! I've got a proposition that is going to make money for some-' body. You don't need a young fortune to get in on it. All you need to do is to cut down on the luxuries. Run the old bus for another year! Put aside a few dollars each week 1 That's all. Do that, and I'll give you a flying start up the road to financial independence." He goes on later: " Luck ? Sure there's such a thing as luck—but there's also such a thing as determination—nerve." He gives his record for the past 22 years, and pursues: " That's my record and it holds good with every inch of dirt I sell." " Here's your chance to break, into velvet," finishes this real estate man. ■Clothes and the Man.

My professor had a suit of clothes made in Los Angeles, good clothes, expensive clothes. And soon after he got this letter, with a nice photograph of the tailor himself on the top corners of the sheet of paper, sitting cross-legged on a stool sewing. " My Dear Sir, —Some time ago I made you a suit ok clothes., As a rule, all of the clothes I make are always satisfactory. Very, very seldom, something might not be just as it should. I can never know of this until some customer comes in and tells me what the trouble is. I welcome the chance to make these things satisfactory. Some customers again get offended and never come back.

" I don't know if either of these cases apply to your individual case or not. My sole object in writing this letter is to assure you that because you have the clothes and I have the money for them that this particular transaction is not ended. With me, it has only commenced. " I again want to make it very emphatic that I guarantee the clothes I make to be perfectly satisfactory as long as you see fit to wear them. If at any time you find them otherwise, instead of staying away and cussing me, bring them back, and then, if I don't make them satisfactory, you can go ahead and cuss me all you like. " Respectfully yours, " So-and-/30, The Tailor."

His next letter began, with no preliminaries : " Your Easter suit—been thinking about it? Of course you have!" So, it appears, had So-and-So. He gets lyrical about " the sprightliest, springiest craftings that ever crossed the threshold of this shop." He says: "On Easter Day you will want to step out in your smart new suit—the moment you get into it you'll feel that spring is here. There >vill be no question of its styling—its crafting—its workmanship. There can't be. Because—there won't be any dabbing or stabbing at accuracy. It will be made to your measure, will express your individuality—and not your neighbour's—it will speak without talking—and it will speak in your favour—and in favour of your style, sense and good judgment. Come early and choose a snappy pattern."

. " Where is Thy Sting?" It is all verv well to "Say.it with flowers," but here is something much more useful.

" Dear Sir, —It is unfair to yourself and unfairsto those you love so dearly to delay this important- matter until that inevitable day of sorrow, when your mind is too distraught to give the selection of a memorial plot the intelligent care it deserves. A cemetery lot is just as vital to you as life insurance. Wisdom insists that we plan for the inevitable. Hence, now, to-day is the time to make your selection. We would deeply regret it if this message should enter "the home of illness, but while in good health it is a subject of great importance to you, and you must gi\*e it careful consideration." This letter was followed up by two aeroplane photographs of Los Angeles, demonstrating with thoroughness the extremely limited area available, in that city for" cemetery purposes. We were advised to buy some " dirt," as earth is pleasantly called there, in the " before need " part of this cemetery, which, through " our perpetual care fund, will for all time be kept beautiful by the artistry of skilled gardeners." And by the merest chance, the day after the aeroplane photographs arrived* came a neat and unobtrusive note from a " Funeral Parlour," saying that in the regretted need of the services of a member of the National Selected Morticians, a member of their firm would call, give advice and personal help, " in an unobtrusive and sympathetic manner, calculated to give satisfaction and comfort to even the most broken hearted and crushed." Dear Friend," writes the editor of a magazine, " wo have evidence against you—you do your own thinking. You are sensitive to the tendency of your time—dismayed by it, amused by it, sometimes wanting to do something about it." And then comes an offer to supply two magazines at the cost of one and a'half,

But on this occasion we exercised our own vaunted thinking by paying no attention to the evidence against us. " Smoking in this cer is strictly forbidden, even Golden Rod," is rather neat.