PHRASES WHICH BROUGHT FORTUNES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3098, 30 July 1913, Page 77

PHRASES WHICH BROUGHT FORTUNES.

(Copyright.) “Gtmd morning! Have you ?” How many times have you completed that quotation when jocularly saluting a friend? Perhaps you have occasionally pondered the value of such a sentence in advertising. For it is one of those phrases which have brought fortunes. Probably you can think of several others even as you read these opening lines. It is the dream of every advertiser to strike a catch phrase—a phrase which will take the public fancy and set people talking. Something that, apart from advertisements which have to be paid for, will get into the papers as a matter of general interest. Something, if possible, that will set the public arguing about it or even quarrelling. Something tiiat the public pretends at length is intolerable. Something, for instance, like those lines _ by Mark Twain in reference to regulations for omnibus conductors — Punch, brothers, punch with care, Punch in the presence of the passer!jure. How those lines did amuse the Americans, to be sure. Urey spread from paper to paper, from lip to lip. They haunted the people at home, at church, at business. They were gently chanted to omnibus Conductors as they sold tickets to the “ passenjares.” They caused an epidemic of mild mania. S.T. 1860. X. At all events they stuck in the public memory. That is wimt advertisers want — something that the public will never forget : a line about Blank’s soap which will recur lo the housewife when she finds supplies run out ; a phrase which will strike the man whose tummy is out of order and who wants to know of a useful pill. Mr Morgan Richards, one of the world’s most famous advertising men, once scored a singular success with such a phrase. Advertisements occupied great spaces in the papers. They consisted of nothing but the line, in capital letters — “ S. T. 1860. X.” The letters were posted on the hoardings so that they could not be missed. They were scattered broadcast by circular and handbill. They were scrawled on blank walls and gateposts. Householders received them through the post. They were painted in letters 4Coit high on a mountain scarp, and half a forest was cut down in order that the passengers on the Pennsylvania railroad should see them, as the line passed within view of tlie hili. What did those letters mean? American citizens raised discussions in ever-increas-ing volume. They wrote to the cdkors of the newspapers demanding explanations which the editors were unable to give. They made wagers, some professing to have fitting explanations. Family feuds were numerous. Wherever half a dozen people congregated together there that question would arise : What was meant by that line, S.T. 1860. X.? In duo time the explanation came. Mr Morgan Richards had projected an advertising campaign for a firm desirous of obtaining a great sale for their medicinal drink issued under the name of Plantation Bitters. and “ S.T. 1860. X. metely meant that the proprietor of the Plantation Bitters had “Started Trading in 1860 with 10 (X) dollars.” And the people started in to buy Plantation Bitters right away. GOOD MORNING! “Good morning! Have yon used Pears’ soap?” has passed into tin? rallies of phrases which are almost immortal. Mr Barratt, to whom tlie advertising of the famous soapniakers owes so many of its brilliances, was one day pondering an other film's cat; li-phrasc. “Queer i-dlvnv. Epps,” he said t'o himself. “ I wonder how he came to use the words. ‘Grate fid and Comforting.’ ” It was. of course, obvious that tlie name and fame of the cocoa firm was largely bound up with the legend that their product was “grateful and comforting.” And so Mr Barratt set out to discover a phrase which would similarly bind itself with the Pears’ soap. He bit upon the expedient of asking his friends to make out lists of the most popular forms of salutation. At tlie beat! of almost every one of those lasts was ihe greeting. “Good morning 1” That evidently was the be-t. and so tlie greeting and the gentle inquire were introduced into the advertisement, with all sorts of pictorial aid. as. for instance the oii-tuie of the sweep in his working clothes and sooty face at the door of the cottage. ‘‘Good morning! Have you used Pears’ scan?” inquires the clean, bright housewife. The phrase catight on at once. Within a month or so everybody was asking the question, and the firm had one of tlie best advertisements in its history. The same manufacturers made another lucky “ strike.” so to speak, some years earlier in connection with the picture of the chubby bov who is endeavouring to climb out of bis hath, and is particularly cross because he is not in possession of a cake of soap on the floor close by. Everybody knows that picture, and the legend associated with it. The picture was a detail of a much bigger work seen in Paris bv Mr Barratt, who bought it for a large sum of money and brought it to London. Then that portion of the picture wish which we are all so familiar was issued in poster and other forms with tlie title o? “ A Knight of the Bath.” It fell flat ; it was a dead failure Then a happy inspiration seized the advertisers, and the advertisements were reissued under the title of “He won't bo happy till he gets it ” —and at once the phrase leapt to tin lips of everybody, and be came one of the great classics of advertisin'.' literature. WORTH A GUINEA A BOX. Once upon a time in the market-place of St. Helens, the famous glass manufacturing town of Lancashire, a man stood gelling pills made according to a particular recipe of his own. He had so stood there market-day after market-day for months and years, doing a gradually increasing

business. And to him cam© a countrywoman intent on buying a further supply of- his medicines. “ Ah, Mr Beecham,” she said, “ your pills are worth a guinea a box.” The phrase stuck. Mr Thomas Beecham advertised and used the sentence the countrywoman had employed incidentally to express her appreciation of the pills. And business moved forward at a tremendous pace. The more it grew the more Mr Beecham advertised. The more he advertised the more the business grew. And “Worth a guinea a box” was the sentence which found, and still finds, a place in the Beecham advertisements all over the world. Truly, this is a phrase which has meant fortune. There are others. We use the words, “ Won’t wash clothes,” in all kinds of serious and humorous connections: but we never forget its original association with “ Monkey Brand.” The same may be said of the more recent, but quite historic. “Alas, my poor brother!” the remark-ably-taking phrase which appeared witli one of the most arresting pictorial advertisements which ever appeared on the hoardings or in the press. It was the forerunner of a fine series of other Bovril advertisements of scarcely less interest. HE CAME! Other phrases might be quoted, but they are not so familiar as those given, and in the nature of things there is not room for many at a time. Two good ones running simultaneously would probably have the effect of crushing each other out and destroying each other s effect. None the less, every advertiser who knows anything about bis business is only too eager to receive the inspiration which will produce a nhrase to bring him fortune. He won't he happy till he* gets it. but in the meantime he does-his best without it. Sometimes bo endeavours to obtain his advertisement by affecting the mysterious. Entertainers, for example. are prone to putting out posteis bearing the plain statement in large type that “So-and-so is coming.” The idea was used effectively once by a man who engaged a big hall in a town which shall be nameless, and placarded all the local hoardings with the words, “He is coming.” And tlie people began to wonder who “He” might be. In a week or so the placards were altered to “He is here!” and close inspection of the placards was necessary for the people to discover (hat Professor So-and-so had arrived to give a remarkable entertainment at the local public ball, and the charges of admission were —so pinch. Great interest was thus evoked, and the crowd in the hall was a large one. Five minutes after the lime for the beginning of the entertainment. when the audience were betraying signs of impatience, the curtain went un and revealed a stage the only decoration of which was a huge white sheet hearin2 the words. “He is gone!” And he had none—with all the admission money-