Accounting for a Pleasing Quality
In Architectural Advertising
Of the virtues found in Advertising, Frankness is unquestionably the most refreshing. It banishes prejudice and makes friends.
The fact that this element is present to an unusual degree in most advertising designed to reach Architects is responsible for the splendid educational value to be found in the Advertising Section of any representative Architectural publication.
It is but natural that an Advertiser shall sense the intellectual calibre of those he addresses, just as a speaker gauges his audience. And it rarely happens that an Advertiser in the Architectural field is misled into believing that ballyhoo methods will get anywhere with an Architectural audience. Therefore, Architectural Advertising is conspicuously lacking in senseless superlatives and obnoxious exaggerations. It is candid or it fails quickly.
And it follows that the banishing of the Barnumesque element leaves any Advertiser with but two alternatives—to tell a truth that is worth telling, or to keep silent if he has no such truth at his command.
Thus, again, appears a reason why Advertising to Architects gradually acquires the nature of a warranty of merit. He who has nothing to say and must say it in straightforward terms will make a short speech and disappear.
The Advertiser who is able to maintain his position before an Architectural audience has something to say that is worth saying, and equally worth hearing, which merely means that the subject he is talking about is worth knowing about. The subject, naturally, is the Goods he offers for sale or the Service accompanying the Goods or the Policies of the business enterprise back of the Goods and Service.
Talks on Advertising—III
by
THE AMERICAN ARCHITECT
In Architectural Advertising
Of the virtues found in Advertising, Frankness is unquestionably the most refreshing. It banishes prejudice and makes friends.
The fact that this element is present to an unusual degree in most advertising designed to reach Architects is responsible for the splendid educational value to be found in the Advertising Section of any representative Architectural publication.
It is but natural that an Advertiser shall sense the intellectual calibre of those he addresses, just as a speaker gauges his audience. And it rarely happens that an Advertiser in the Architectural field is misled into believing that ballyhoo methods will get anywhere with an Architectural audience. Therefore, Architectural Advertising is conspicuously lacking in senseless superlatives and obnoxious exaggerations. It is candid or it fails quickly.
And it follows that the banishing of the Barnumesque element leaves any Advertiser with but two alternatives—to tell a truth that is worth telling, or to keep silent if he has no such truth at his command.
Thus, again, appears a reason why Advertising to Architects gradually acquires the nature of a warranty of merit. He who has nothing to say and must say it in straightforward terms will make a short speech and disappear.
The Advertiser who is able to maintain his position before an Architectural audience has something to say that is worth saying, and equally worth hearing, which merely means that the subject he is talking about is worth knowing about. The subject, naturally, is the Goods he offers for sale or the Service accompanying the Goods or the Policies of the business enterprise back of the Goods and Service.
Talks on Advertising—III
by
THE AMERICAN ARCHITECT