Some Don'ts when You Do Advertise

The price of the gun never hits the bull's eye.
And the bang seldom rattles the bells.
It's the hand on the trigger that cuts the real figger.
The aim's what amounts—that's what makes record counts—
Are you hitting or just wasting shells?

Don't forget that the man who writes your copy is the man who aims your policy.

When you stop to reflect what your space costs and that the wrong talk is just noise—bang without biff—you must see the necessity and sanity of putting the right man behind the gun.

Don't tolerate an ambition on your ad-man's part to indulge in a lurking desire to be a literary light.

People read his advertising to discover what your buyers have just brought from the market and what you are asking for “O.N.T.” They buy the newspaper for information and recreation and are satisfied with the degree of poetry and persiflage dished up in its reading columns.

Don't exaggerate. Poetic licenses are not valid in business prose. The American people don't want to be humbugged and the merchant who figures upon too many fools, finds himself looking into a mirror, usually about a half hour after the sheriff has come to look over the premises.

Don't imitate. Advertising is a special measure garment. Businesses are not built in ready-made sizes. Copy which fits somebody else's selling plans, won't fit your store without sagging at the chest or riding up at the collar. Duplicated argument and duplicated results are not twins. Your policy of publicity must be specially measured from your policy of merchandising.

Don't put your advertising in charge of an amateur. Let somebody else stand the expense of his educational blunders. Remember you are making a plea before the bar of public confidence. Your ad-writer is an advocate. Like a bad lawyer, he can lose a good case by not making the most of the facts at hand.

Don't get the “sales” habit. “Sales” are stimulants. When held too often their effect is weakening. The merchant who continually yells “bargain” is like the old hen who was always crying “fox.” When the real article did come along, none of her chicks believed it.

Don't use fine print. Make it easy for the reader to find out about your business. There are ten million pairs of eyeglasses worn in America, and every owner of them buys something.

And Don't start unless you mean to stick. The patron saint of the successful advertiser hates a quitter.