Business English Part 97

3. How might either advertis.e.m.e.nt be improved?

=Exercise 287=

Still-life advertis.e.m.e.nts are not interesting. The picture of a furnace, or a typewriter, or a house attracts less attention than the same objects with human beings represented moving in the picture.

Bring to cla.s.s two advertis.e.m.e.nts of the same kind of article, in one of which a still-life ill.u.s.tration is used and in the other of which human beings are used to center the attention upon the article that is offered for sale.

=Exercise 288=

Bring to cla.s.s (1) an advertis.e.m.e.nt that is not good because it contains too much--lacks a center upon which the attention naturally focuses; and (2) an advertis.e.m.e.nt that is good because it has a definitely defined center of attraction.

=Exercise 289=

Bring to cla.s.s an advertis.e.m.e.nt in which the principle of balance is used to advantage, two ill.u.s.trations, one on each side of the text, being used to convey one impression.

=Exercise 290=

In writing the following, try to embody the principles that have been brought out in previous exercises:

1. An entertainment is to be given in the school hall.

Write an advertis.e.m.e.nt to appear in the school paper.

2. Write an announcement of the same entertainment--to be posted on the bulletin board.

3. Write an advertis.e.m.e.nt for a debate.

4. For a football, baseball, or basket-ball game.

5. For an inter-cla.s.s contest.

6. You have permission to secure advertis.e.m.e.nts to be printed in the program of the entertainment spoken of above. Suppose that you are to write the copy for the different advertis.e.m.e.nts. Use one-eighth, one-quarter, one-half, or one page, as you wish.

Advertise a grocery.

7. A meat market.

8. A dry goods store.

9. A candy store.

10. A bakery.

11. A bank.

12. A tailor's shop.

13. A photographer's studio.

14. A barber shop.

15. A drug store.

=Exercise 291=

1. Write a handbill announcing a 20% discount sale to run three days in your dry goods store.

2. Describe a chair, table, or other article of furniture in your own home. The description is to form part of an advertis.e.m.e.nt to appear in a mail order catalogue.

3. You are advertising a new brand of coffee in the street car. Write the card. Would you use an ill.u.s.tration? If so, of what kind?

4. As in (3) advertise a new brand of pork and beans.

5. As in (3) advertise a shoe sale.

6. Advertise a well-known brand of soap in a magazine.

Use your own idea. Would you use an ill.u.s.tration?

7. How would you advertise an automobile which has proved its merits? Remember, your object is to keep the name before the public. How would you advertise a new make of automobile? How much s.p.a.ce would you use in either case? Write both advertis.e.m.e.nts.

8. A half-page advertis.e.m.e.nt by the Hudson Cereal Company, 110 Hudson St., New York, of their Nervo-Cereal Coffee contains the item: "Can you thread a needle, holding the thread one inch from the end? If you cannot, you are nervous. Is coffee to blame?"

Exploit the aroma and flavor of the cereal coffee.

9. The Central Packing Company is running a series of advertis.e.m.e.nts of their Premium Extract of Beef. This one is to appear just before Thanksgiving. Ent.i.tle it "Four Delicious Dishes for the Thanksgiving Dinner,"

and then in as attractive a form as possible give four recipes, making a point of the necessity of using Premium Extract for the right flavor. At the end sum up the merits of Premium Extract and mention the silver premiums given with the certificates under the metal caps.

10. The Bay City Mill Co., Bay City, Mich., sells fine finished lumber suitable for making furniture at home.

Prepare an advertis.e.m.e.nt to show how simple it is to make tables and chairs at home with their plans and their specially cut lumber. Ill.u.s.trate by giving the plans and working directions for making a useful table, showing how easy it is with their specially cut lumber. Set an attractive price on the lumber necessary to make this table. Sum up by exploiting a book of plans, which may be had for the asking.

=Exercise 292=

The following paragraph is taken from Professor Scott's _Theory of Advertising_. What is the subject of the paragraph? Is there a topic sentence? By what plan is the paragraph developed?

Many of those who use ill.u.s.trations for their advertis.e.m.e.nts follow the philosophy of the Irish boy who said that he liked to stub his toe because it felt so good when it stopped hurting. Many of us are unable to see how the boy had made any gain after it was all over, but he was satisfied, and that was sufficient.

The philosophic disciples of the Irish boy are found in advertisers who have certain things to dispose of which will not do certain harmful things. First they choose an ill.u.s.tration which will make you believe that what they have to sell is just what you do not want, and then in the text they try to overcome this false impression and to show you that what they have to offer is not so bad after all. Most of us are unable to see how the advertiser has gained, even if he has succeeded in giving us logical proof that his goods are not so bad as we were at first led to think.

We are not logically inclined, and we take the ill.u.s.tration and the text, and we combine the two. The best that the text can do is to destroy the evil effect of the ill.u.s.tration. Of course, when we read in the text that the ill.u.s.tration does not correctly represent the goods, we ought to discard the ill.u.s.tration entirely and think only of the text, but, unfortunately, we are not constructed in that way. The impression made by the ill.u.s.tration and that made by the text fuse and form a whole which is the result formed by these two elements.

Write paragraphs on each of the following:

1. Advertising is essential in modern business.

2. Advertising helps the housewife economize.