Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, January 30, 1910, Page 17

PART THREE HALF-TONE FOR ALL THE NEWS THE OMAHA BEE DEST IN THE WEST VOL. XXXIX-—NO. 33. 8 WRITERS WHOSE PRODUCTIONS AR Men Who Prepare the Advertisements for the Big Stores of ROBT, UNION, (i RR. THOMPSEN-BELDEN, OWN in the big depart- ment stores where the tide of shoppers ebbs and flows through the channels and avenues of trade is one salesman with whom the buyer never comes in conta This man is the' advertising manager—the ‘‘silent sales- man" of the big store. There are clerks—hundreds of them in many establishments—busy at all hours handling the goods of their employers and the money of their customers. These salesmen are constantly before the public, but the “silent sales- ofin" is hidden away in a little world of his own, surrounded by newspapers, and cuts, and drawing materials, grinding out the ‘“copy” for- the advertise- ments that sell the goods. The “silent salesman” is, after all, the man who ar- ranges the sales, for he is the man behind the “copy’— the man who toys with the wants of others and aims his ads at the things with which to supply those wants. A bit of cleverness, an attractive cut, a few catchy words or some knock-down prices, cunningly arranged by the ad writer, lure the buyer to the bargain counters. The advertisement simply plays with human nature in the little game of give and take, for he seeks to snare the minds of his readers In the net that holds the things that they need and want. He works on the minds of his read- ers, and they, in turn answer the call of the man behind the ad. Here in Omaha is a clan of advertisement writers who silently and assiduously work on the “copy” that appears in the big newspapers. Their work goes on and on like an endless chain. Every day in the year they have some new idea to create, some new article to exploit, new prices to announce, new patterns to show. The life of the dally newspaper is but ephemeral. BEach day it is born and each day it dies. It is read strenuously by strenuous people; they eagerly grasp it, glance it through and cast it aside. Hence, the ads that these men write live but a short time. Each day there must be something new, but the newspaper and advertising go on. How many people are there who understand the work of the advertisement writer? Maybe you never knew that such a man really lives. E£tep into any of the big stores, if you will, and try to locate the advertising manager. You may search the entire store and not find him unless he is pointed out to you. Back in his den the ad writer isat work. He is working out the ‘‘copy” that he knows is the soul ot the advertising that must appear In the paper. He knows that advertising without good copy—npithy, catchy, clever, attractive stuff—is like the Indian in front of the clgar store; it locates the store, but does not say anything. His office Is the clearing house of prices. Lists of articles come in with their prices appended. The same evening or the next morning these articles are enumerated in the columns of the paper, alluringly ar- ranged with a bit of “‘business English” and a picture or two. All this catches the eye of the reader and the ad writer has done his work, In the hall of fame are men who have worked themselves there by various and circuitous routes. Likewise in the advertising game men have won out in different ways. Robert Manley, advertising manager at the Brandeis stores, has been dcing the ad stunt for seven years in Omaha. He was once a newspaper man and served the days of the cub reporter on the Chi- cago Tribune, and has sat with the police at Central station through the long hours of the “dog watch."” He knew that advertising paid long before he got any pay for it himself, Cn the other hand Richard D, Skankey, advertising manager of the Thompson-Belden company, worked himself up through the reg- ular aisles of trade. He was born in Omaha and earned his first dollar in the store, where he is now chief of publicity. He has served in every department of the big store—has watched it grow—and knows every nook and corner of the big establishment like a skillful mariner knows his ship. Robert A, Smith, advertising manager for the Unlon Pacific rail- road, helds a position that is uniquely different from the usual drift of ad writers. He has nothing to sell but railway tickets. All over the lines of the Unlon Pacific, the Southern Pacific, the Oregon Rail- way & Navigation company’s lines and the Oregon Short Line, his ads appear. Mr. Smith has been writing copy for the Harriman sys- tem since 1892, when he entered the passenger department, although ke haz been in the rallroad whirl since 1885. W. T. Bourke is still another type of the ad writer. Mr, Bourke Is the proprietor of the Men's Fashion Shop on Fifteenth street, be- ween Parcam and Harney. He is the type of proprietor-ad writer for he i3 his own publicity agent. Mr.-Bourke came to Omaha from hicago. For ten years he was with the Browning-King company, e2d then branched out and hustled for himself. He has built up a large trade by close attention to business and is a regular and con- sistent newspaper advertiser. His ads tell the story. Edward 8. Thompson of the Walk Over Shoe company, John A. ns of the Fry Shoe company, Robert 8. Haaker of the Refent Shoe company, Robert R. Rosenzwelg of the Drexel Shoe company, Frank B. Palmer of the Shoe Market and Frank Wilcox of the Sorosis Shoe company are specialists in handling leather goods. They know that patent leathers and calf-skins are more popular in Omaha than wooden shoes and they write ads to métch. They form a sextet that caz sing meaning ballads about the shoe industry. Fred Paftenrath, with Nicoll the Tailor, and Ellis H. Wilson of the MacCarthy-Wilson Tailoring company, represent another class of ad writers. They know what the men-folks like to wear and they print pictures of the latest styles and quote prices that attract the l’h.r of tallor made clothing. Mr. Paffenrath has been in business i Omaha for twenty-one years. Dresher, the tallor, also belongs to this class of advertisers. Arthur Metz, Edgar A. Higgins and- Wil- Uam Kennedy are the three jolly brewers. Mr. Metz tells us of the . Y AE. WiLcox. ASST_MGR. OW. 7y, WS m AR ke BOURKES CLOTHES 5HOP..‘ R0BT ROSENWEIG DREXEL SHOEGe W]}’q(_. KENN%D(FY' RUGpW! BR . ‘f'afliwc "//////W/// QNRNPIRO00 E.H. WILSON— N THY, SCHMOLLER & MUELLERS ¢ R.E.SUNDERLAND o {SUNDERLAND BRos. ¢ beaithful properties of Metz beer and why it is better than any otaer; Mr. Higglns says the same things about the Storz beer and Mr. Ken- nedy says that Luxus is the “Beer You Like.” Anyway, they know the Lest way of advertising good beer and how to make lips water for the pale beverage. Beer is one of the most widely advertised com modities on the market, not local beers alone, but the brews of all cities. Albert Edholm of the Edholm Jewelry company, C. B, Browpn of the Brown Jewelry company, 8. W. Lindsay, T. L. Coombs, Joseph Frenzer, Abraham Mandelberg, Fred W. Brodegaard and the Ryan Jewelry company all believe in regular and consistent advertising. Glistening, dazzling and shimmering ads bring trade and these men are types of jewelers who write their own ads. have long been established in Omaha. Frank W, Harwood of the Thomas Cusack company, formerly the Omaha Gunning system, also has something of a unique place in the field of ad writers. He has no commodity to sell, except space, but he does the publicity work for other people. Mr. Harwood has been following the advertisement game for three years i Omaha. He is the secretary of the Omaha Ad club and was one of the “‘boosters” to go to the Loulsville convention and came back with the scalp of the next convention dangling from his belt. He helped ad- vertise Omaha and is going to bring about 1,000 ad writers to the eity Many of these tirms SIN(ILI']_ COPY FIVE CENTS. B WART MILLER STEWART ADV MGR_aRA _a fiffi/g"n ‘ il J W ALBERT EDHOLM EDHOI:IEV DCAR o A HIGGINS, ¥ STOR2 BRé Co. next summer. In this category comes also T. Tony Jacobs. “He Writes Ads.” He writes them for himself, but he makes a business cf writing them for other people. When he writes an ad he always asks the question, “‘Does it have pull?” “It's necessary,” he Another group of ad writers are the men in the larger depart ment stores. This group includes such men as John W. Stewart of Miller, Stewart & Beaton, Fred M. Hall of the Peoples store, Luton L. Baum of the Nebraska Clothing company, Nathan Horton of the Berg Clothing company, Robert Cowell of Thomas Kilpatrick & Co., Charles L. Vance of Hayden Bres., Charles T. Walker of the King- Swanson company, Richard E. Wilcox of the Browning King com- pany, Harry Hanna of the Bennett company, Wilbur G. Brand of Orchard & Wilhelm, Robert Manley of the Brandels stores, Richard D. Skankey of Thompson & Belden and J. C. Johnson of Schmoller & Mueller, This big group of men feel the pulse of the big throbbing stores beneath their sway and then record the status of events in the news- papers. They are advertising managers—everyone of them-—they possess business abllity that must be marked; they have originality and when they have evolved plan$ they put them into operation. Although there are many in the same fleld, éach one knows that he must be a little different from ‘“‘the other fellow.” Each of these men knows that when “copy” is sent in ‘“results” must come back, says E ALWAYS IN DEMAND Omaha and How Thoy Work to Attract and Hold Public Attention to the End that the Goods May Be Sold CHAS.L VANCE Co. Havpen BRos— L L BAUM s&fldrfilfl «~ HARRY HANNA, | 0. / BEnnerT CoW » ' They have studied the Wana~ maker style of department store advertising and from that hav developed along their own lines of originality. Ralph A. Sunderland of the Bunderland Brothers company has a line of his own to adver- tise, different from the depart- ment store ad writer, The Sunderland Brothers company handles building materials, coal and wood, but advertising helps them, too. In the line of exclusive gar- ments Orkin Brothers and the Wolft store, both on Douglas street between Fifteenth and Sixteenth streets, are copsistent advertisers, The Orkin Broth- ers write their own ads and Miss Wolft likewise writes her own copy. Right in that same neighborhood is a firm that handles musical instruments. This is the A, Hospe com- pany, and William Zitzman is the man who handles the .advertising for the firm. A store similar to that of Orkin Brothers is that of The Elite Cloak company, for whom Henry A, Grohosky does the advertising stunt. Many are the steps that the price list takes before it finds its way into the columns of the paper. The ad writer gets them personally from heads of departments or from his own personal knowledge. Then he must pre- pare his copy. This he arrahges in the form of a “dummy,” a little chart that shows how the ad will ap- pear in print. This dummy he sends to the newspaper office, measured to space, and later receives it back with a proof of the type for corrections or alterations. Cuts and drawings must be provided for in the given space. Much, however, depends upon the early work of obtain- ing announcements of prices and goods from the various parts of the store. Having received these announcements from ‘the de- partment heads, it is the business of the advertising man- ager to assemble them in effective and attractive style, introducing the page advertisement with- catchy head- lines and with an interesting style of “talk’ which will attract and hold the interest of the reader at once. It is the scheme of the ad writer to group this introductory “talk” around some par- ticular article that is seasonable and timely. Another thing the ad writer tries to do is to be different from ‘‘the other fellow.” He seeks originality, but one thing, however, he keeps in mind, and that is that prices interest the public. The advertising of yesterday is not the advertising of today. Men not very old have witnessed the entire development of modern advertising from being an untrustworthy instrument of quacks and charlatans to its place as an engine in the conduct and expansion of business. “Human Interest” must pervade the advertising copy. The man who writes the copy for the newspaper realizes this. He knows that his copy must center about something of popular interest, He follows, as a rule, the newspaper style and presents his wares in the manner in which they will catch the eye of the reader and make him look. The sagacious merchant no longer fills his newspaper space with extravagant claims regarding “quality” and “‘cheapness.” He leaves ““Barnum’ buncombe and bluster for others, and does not waste costly space in generalizing. If he makes any statement about his goods it is definite and specific. His announcements are made with the understanding that he may be called upon to “‘make good."” He must stand behind his advertising. The necessity for utilizing space in thls way becomes more apparent as the price of that space increases. The public is interested in prices and no one knows this better than the merchant or the advertising manager. When the want has been created In the mind of the reader through the advertisement the next question that interests him is the price he must pay to have that want satisfled. When a firm uses a page or half-page In the local papers the ad- vertlsing manager must flll it with the kind of copy which can be called “sale; hip-on-paper.”” He therefore calls upon the heads of departments for a written statement or announcement of what each department has to offer for the purchaging public on the day that the advertisement is to appear. The head of each department is supposed to be a specialist in his line and must know the weak pleces under him that need to be built up. First of all, in writing an ad he tries to attract attention, are the devices used in attaining this end. It may be big type, a cut, attractive headlines or tantalizing prices. Jingles, such as the Sunny Jim varfety or those cf the Phoebe Snow of the Lackawanna railroad, are ads that attract at a glance. Then the ad writer knows there must be interest. He tries Lo get the attention of the reader and then tries to interest 'him. He offers information that may prove of interest, Once the reader is interested in the article, the writer tries to create a desire on the part of the person to want that article, The value is made manifest—that-is, the good that would result from the possession of the article. Often a person does not realize that he really needs a thing until he is told about it. Then the ad writer works on the mind—the convictions. By his.copy he endeavors to convince the reader of the advantage ‘n owning such & thing and what it means to him to be without it. for himeself, Many This the reader must decide If he wants the article advertised and realizes that he it, it is but the matter of a moment to regolve to purchase ft, This decision fs what the ad writer endeavors to obtain in his copy o The successful advertising writer must have that quick, preeise sense of knowing just what to talk about and just what not to talk about. He must ha good knowledge of “business English"—a command of snappy, vithy, catchy words that tell the story. The advertising writer must be concise. very word occupies space and he must reckon carefully He must put himself in the reader’s place, so that he will know how the reader will construe his “talk.” Above all, he must be a business man. on space.