November, 1937
17
AUTOMATIC AGE
that only a school teacher would manufacturer’s games, create a
like. Here it is: ANY AD desire for them and spur the
THAT SELLS
MERCHAN urge to buy right now. And if
DISE IS GOOD ADVERTIS it is to do any of those things,
it must first be read. If it is
ING.
badly planned, with a jammed
That definition covers the
layout of small, unattractive
“works,” in all fields. A coin
type, its chances of being read
machine operator may say that
are slim. Unless it contains an
the institutional ad he runs to
“attention compeller,” some
acquaint his public with the
thing to hit the reader right be
merits of the coin machine in
tween the eyes (or sometimes
dustry as a whole is published
to hit him at the opposite ex
solely for educational purposes.
treme) it can’t compete with
Yeah? And why does he want
all the pretty pictures and high
to educate people? He wants to
class articles.
sell a bill of goods, and if he
And now, assuming that the
didn’t, he wouldn’t advertise.
coin
machine manufacturer has
Operators may be big-hearted,
prepared
an ad that is truthful,
but they aren’t playing Santa
an ad that is attractive, one
Claus.
that creates an urge for imme
A manufacturer once told me diate action— the ad is not
that he had run a certain ad in worth a 1915 model “Sultana’s
a coin machine trade journal Bridal Night” penny arcade
not to sell merchandise but to machine unless it reaches the
create good will. “Why do you right readers.
want good will?” I asked. “Why,
so I can sell more games, of
course,” he replied.
Bad advertising, reversing
our definition, is advertising
that does not sell merchandise.
A coin machine ad that creates
such a glowing mental picture
of a game that the operator is
disappointed when he sees the
machine is bad advertising. An
ad that says things about a
game that the game can’t back
up is equally bad.
Even bad advertising occas
sionally does a good job. Many
a time, a really poor coin ma
chine advertisement has pulled
big results in spite of the ad’s
weakness. Maybe the market
was right, maybe the new game
was obviously so good that it
outweighed the bad advertis
ing. A dozen things could be
responsible.
How should you go about pre
paring your advertising Well,
if an ad is to achieve its goal,
it must attract interest to the
Advertising must l>e concen
trated upon people who can buy
and who can reasonably be ex
pected to want to buy, rather
than scattered to an indiscrim
inate mass. In other words, the
ad must meet its market.
Having met its market, it
must create a more favorable
impression than will any com
petitive advertising message. It
isn’t enough to sell the customer
on the idea that your game is a
good one; you must make him
believe that “Bugola” is better
than “Blooperoo.” Having con
vinced him that “Bugola” is the
best game for his money, you
must then make your advertis
ing copy prove to him that he
can’t get along another day
without a shipment of “Bugo-
las.” When your ad has done
all those things, you’re in the
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