Automatic Age

November, 1937
AUTOMATIC AGE
16
This Adversting Business
By Joel Caron,
Pres. Brinckerhoff-Caron, Inc.
“Wolf, wolf” enough times to
get into a jam. Of course, if
any manufacturer can corral a
group of operators who are
dumb enough to believe that
every new game the manu­
facturer markets is superior in
every way to all games being
sold by other manufacturers,
he’ll get along well regardless
of what claims he makes in his
advertising. But operators, the
manufacturers tell me, are a
deplorably skeptical bunch of
fellows who would ask for a
trial marriage if Mae West pro­
posed to them.
jy^oe Zilch and Joe Swack had
a nice little coin machine
factory when they decided to
advertise. They were doing a
good business, turning out fif­
teen or twenty pin games every
week, but they weren’t satisfied
so they decided to buy advertis­
ing.
Under the guidance of their
advertising man, business boom­
ed to the point where the plant
was netting a hundred thousand
dollars a year.
Moe wasn’t satisfied. “Listen,
Joe,” he said. “I have been do­
ing some thinking. Our adver­
tising bill this year was nearly
twenty thousand dollars. We
can cut it in half. And this lug
that’s been doing our advertis­
ing— I don’t think he’s so hot.
I got ideas that I think would
click better. Let me handle
this thing myself.”
Untruthful advertising is al­
ways bad. But an ad can be
truthful and still be very “un­
good”.
JOEL CARON
But there are some things
every coin machine man can
learn and should know about
Most business men concede
the art of telling the world. The that advertising is necessary to
first of these is that untruthful their continued success. They
ads are not only weak adver­ will readily admit that they’d
tising but bad business.
hate to try getting along with­
Six months later, Moe called
“It stinks,” that genius of out it.
his former advertising man in­
to the office. “It ain’t that I ’m moving picture producers, Sam
Granted that advertising is
not doing a wonderful job on Goldwyn is credited with hav­ good, we’ll have to admit that
this advertising,”,” Moe as­ ing said of a brain-child that not all advertising is good ad­
sured him, “but I just haven’t had gone sour. “It’s lousy. Why, vertising. At one time or an­
got the time to handle it any it ain’t even colossal!” He other, every person ever re­
drew a laugh, but the sad truth motely connected with the
more.”
is that motion picture adver­ advertising profession has been
“No.” the advertising man,
tising has used and abused so asked for a definition of good
who knew what had been going
many superlatives that “colos­ advertising and I ’m afraid that
on, agreed, “I suppose not. I
sal” could well apply to a medi­ almost all of them have aired
imagine it’s taking most of your
ocre effort.
their ideas. Some of the defini­
time to stave off your creditors.”
There’s been a tendency to tions have been very complex,
Advertising is a mysterious
profession. No business man over-exaggeration in the coin as hard to understand as the
should feel an inferiority com­ machine business, as in all lines, mechanics of a ten-way coin
automatic
payout.
plex because of inability to a tendency to label every game machine
master its fine points, for many
a man who has spent a lifetime
in the profession learns some­
thing new today and will learn
something new tomorrow.
“the best ever put on the mar­
ket.” And manufacturers and
their advertising men can profit
from doing a lot of thinking
about the little boy who cried
© International Arcade Museum
They’ve been full of “isms” and
rather vague but impressive
references to mass psychology.
Now I ’ll give my definition.
Don’t go away yet— it isn’t one
http://www.arcade-museum.com/