Page 26 - 1912 May - To Dragma

TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI 145

physical effect of paper, pictures and printing. A few women are
"crack" keepers of advertisement accounts and statistcs. A very few
are cost experts. Not more than one or two really know the adver-
tising media,—the newspapers and magazines,—and I grant even one
or two in the effort to be charitable. I know of no woman who has
really filled a large position of the seventh class, as a responsible
manager of advertising campaigns.

To be sure, a number of women have title of advertising man-
ager and do this work within certain bounds. But the bounds are
very certain; the women are always limited as to scope or under the
direct supervision of the firm or pledged to a definite policy not of
their own making.

So you will see that the advertising business has as yet been
scarcely touched by women and offers a large opportunity to those
who will take it seriously. So you will see, too, what is often not
seen very clearly, that the opportunity is by no means confined to
those who have a g i f t for writing.

This gift, however, is of course essential to any large success. I n
fact, the more phases of the work a girl is able to master the greater
are her chances for supremacy.

I shall take up the indicated departments one by one, dwelling
most on the first, which is the gateway through which most women
enter the lists.

1. The first and deepest necessity of an advertisement writer is
a habit of veracity. I know that this statement is opposed to the
popular conception and the reason for that is just: I t used not to be
so. A generation ago most advertising was of the circus kind, and
indeed, much advertising today is not as careful as might be wished.
But the bulk of modern advertising is fanatically careful. The lead-
ing advertisers in America will not tolerate the slightest exaggera-
tion or any claim that is not solidly founded. Some do not tell even
all the real virtues of their products in the fear that they may be sus-
pected of exaggeration.

In these days when business has so many sins on its conscience,
this seems a pleasant matter to think about. But, lest I myself be
guilty of exaggerated advertising, let me say that this reform has
an economic and not a moral basis.

I t has been clearly shown by experiment that, in these days, truth-
less advertising does not pay. The expense of advertising widely is so
great that its results have to be measured in terms of time. Adver-
tising, to pay, must not only get customers; it must also keep them.
I f the goods and the advertisement do not agree, this is impossible.