AN INSTRUCTIVE BLAST FROM THE PAST.

Great article from our very own Dave Newbold that was recently featured in AdNews. Check it out online at http://adnewsonline.com/index.cfm.

Forget about deciphering the future, or trying to envision what new technology or digital tools will appear next.

Pause from that frustrating pursuit for five minutes while we peer into advertising’s distant past, in order to re-discover what the future will require – no matter what quirky Facebook rip-off or magical mobile app surfaces next week.

Look backwards for a moment.  Way back.  Keep going.  And going.

1925, bingo.

Lord & Thomas was the largest ad agency in the world at that time, and forerunner to what later became known as Foote Cone Belding (which itself became a behemoth in the ad industry).   Although his name never appeared on the door, L&T’s creator was Albert Lasker, a tireless taskmaster and one of the advertising industry’s greatest pioneers during the first half of the 20th century. With the assistance of Claude Hopkins, one of the first great professional copywriters, Lasker transformed brands such as Kleenex, Kotex, Pepsodent and Lucky Strike into household names.

That year, his agency published a series of magazine ads.  (Imagine that, an ad agency practicing what it preaches.)  The long-copy ads, mostly devoid of graphics, taught tenets of truth that may well be eternal.  Here are some excised jewels from that series.  See if you agree.

1. “Look for two certain qualities in every advertisement: ‘Fire and Feeling.’  Elements which, possessed, make one man a super-salesman.  And lacked, another a misfit.  Which make one ad sway millions to buy.  And left out, make another costly mediocrity.  ”
2. “The advertisement that trumpets ‘Here Is the Greatest Thing on Earth’ is, in modern advertising practice, judged a liability.  Only medicine shows and street carnivals any longer employ ‘barkers.’  Avoid boast and bombast.  For the whispered word is often more potent than the shouted.”
3. “When you find a winning story in advertising, stay with it.  Don’t, in the struggle for ‘something different,’ change it.
4. “The true science of headlines is to strike the right balance.  Not common-place, for that’s without excuse.  Not bizarre, for that’s a costly folly.  Not indefinite, but definite and compelling.”
5. “Many slogans can apply to ten or fifty products, but your claims as to the exclusive features of your product can apply only to yours.  If your ad copy features generalized slogans or extraneous ‘human interest’ leads more pertinently than your product, then change your copy.”

Sound familiar?  Some things never change, and shouldn’t.  These principles, circa 1925, apply every bit as much today, whether we’re creating a Flash banner or a matchbook cover.

I have long believed my job is to sell my clients products and services.  Awards are a bonus for doing that job right in the first place.  With that in mind, I offer a sixth excerpt from the Lord & Taylor ad series – again illustrating that the past can be totally applicable to the present:

• “The object of advertising is to sell.  Its only court of judgment is a profit sheet.  Men may deceive themselves, but profit and loss columns – never.”

Hats off to Mr. Lasker and Mr. Hopkins for leaving us a history lesson that has never gone out of style.