Page 29 - 1912 May - To Dragma

148 TO DRAG MA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

Apart from the good service one can do in helping an honest mer-
chant or manufacturer to serve the public honestly, a good reason
for this thoroughness in advertisement making is that it is so easy to be
superficial. Many superficial writers succeed after a fashion, or
greatly for a time. But they have not the staying quality, either i n
the department store work or in the larger general field. I begin
to believe that superficiality is eveutally doomed in any work any-
where in the world.

That brings me to another point. Do not think that you know
advertising, just because you have written advertisements in a depart-
ment store. The store is a very good place to serve your apprenticeship
and to learn art, because of the constant drill, because of the variety
of subjects and especially because of the daily quick test that lets you
see at once whether you can write pulling copy or not. Each day's
work in the department store advertisement, other things being normal,
is tested by the next day's sales. This training is good, too, because
it offers a very direct way to get merchandise knowledge and a sense
of values. Besides, in good stores, it usually combines the necessity
for accuracy with some opportunity for originality.

But never think that this teaches you all there is to know about
advertising, especially i f your training has been all in one store.

I happen to know of at least one excellent opportunity lost to a
Barnard girl whose progress interested me since we had the same
Alma Mater, lost to her, though she had succeeded pretty well in a
large department store, because she became obsessed with the idea
that she had there covered and conquered the advertising art.

To acquire an all-'round knowledge of your subject it is necessary
to have had employment in more than one representative store,—since
methods and customs are often different each from each,—and espec-
ially to have worked in the agency or general field or in the advertis-
ing office of a manufacturer,—or all of these. I t is necessary to have
had to do with retailers as well as consumers and to have made mag-
azine and street car advertising as well as newspaper work, booklets
*nd circulars.

And then do not think that you know it all.

I feel foolish because this paper sounds as i f I thought I did.
But though I have had all of the experiences listed I have learned
only how Lttlo I know about them.

Last because it must be remembered, attend this charge: Good
taste. Tact. A sense of Fitness.

Don't be funny when you are selling mothers a baby-food. Don't
treat lightly a matter of large expenditure that the spender will take