Advertising (to turn the attention of others to)
Advertising was always with us. That is what Eve was doing when she wiggled as she slowly walked by Adam. The male and female of the lower species of life use it and it is successful about three quarters of the time. Some place along the line people hired other people to help advertise themselves or their product like the man with a sign on his back reading "Eat at Sam's and Enjoy it".

Around 1890 advertising consisted mostly of catalogs, bill boards, retail ads, trade marks, slogans and the are work part of it consisted of drawing trade marks, small and large posters, illustrations of overalls, dresses, men's clothes, stoves, machinery and bird's eye views of factories. Most of these were in black and white with a few in poster colors. The reproduction method was by wood cuts, a very laborious method and zinc etching with the newer method of half tones just being perfected. This method made it possible to reproduce photos fast and the illustrating of advertising cheap enough to be used more often.

Around this period advertising became an important item in most businesses, who looked for men with imagination and knew how to use adjectives and adverbs and artists with ability to make interesting and starting pictures to attract attention and arouse a susceptibility in the reader. More and more men saw the possibility in this field and it became an important part of the world. The old slogan, "if you build a better mouse trap the people will come to buy" was forgotten and the idea that you had to show and tell them about your wonderful products, its possibilities, how economical it was and where to get it.

As a commercial artist, I did work for lots of different products: Larner & Carter Overalls, Fink's "wear like a pig's nose" Overalls, American Beauty Electric flat Iron, Detroit Creamery, D & C Navigation, D & B Navigation Company, Vernors Gingerale, Pfeiffers Beer, Detroit Candy Company, American Beauty Corset Company, Detroit Stove Company and many others.

One of the first advertising men I knew was Henry Ewald, of the Campbell-Ewald Company. He handled both the D&CM D&B Navigation Companies and many other smaller accounts, and was an advertising man with lots of ideas that worked. He was a great believer in the future of Detroit and advertising and was in the thick of all Detroit advertising whether it was for the City, State or for the Government but he but everything he had into it - and that was plenty! He did a lot for this City and you'll find his name in all this City's affairs through these exciting days. He ended up with one of the largest advertising agencies in the country and his clients included: Hyatt Roller Bearing Company and many other firms that helped to make dynamic Detroit - known not only in this country but all over the world.

The advertising, and all connected businesses from engravers to printers, grew by leaps and bounds and gave a chance of a lifetime to be successful and make money. These were hectic days. From the starting point three firms did all the art and engraving: Van Leyen & Hensler, Peninsular Engraving Company and Calvert Lithographing Company. From this grew many businesses of all kinds: engravers, printers, art studios, sign shops, show card writers, binderies, art schools, advertising classes in schools and the help that goes with big business such as stenographers, bookkeepers, telephone operators, research men, models, photographers, space men and contact men. Everybody had to advertise or go out of business.

The retail end of advertising, which is fundamental, as its results are easily verified - you put an ad in the paper selling women's hats for $2.50 and the next night you'll know if your ad was worthwhile or not as the cash register will tell you. The ad-men were either happy or downcast, according to the results, and his reputation acted accordingly.

National Prestige or Industrial advertising was harder to follow and the results were longer to find out. Advertising became very complicated in later years and preparation for advertising a product had to be divided into a good many channels: catalogs, newspapers ads, magazines, publicity, mailing pieces, prize contests and the proper placing of these different items. The prosperity of certain sections of the country made this look like a chess problem.

Detroit became full of advertising men - some who handled the big ones and many just specialists in special fields and this led to advertising men who worked for a large firm just to oversee the firm advertising and the placing of such advertising. At one time are studio printers helped get ideas and even wrote some copy for the advertising agencies. Eventually the large agencies hired their own idea men, layout men and farmed the finish work to specialists in the art or printing business.

Up until 1930, most advertising was black and white product as color photography plates and color printing was impractical. However scientists were working on it as everybody knew the value of color in advertising any subject where the appearance had angles to do with it such as good food, clothes - the only thing they eventually left will be the smell as that means a lot in some instances. Some people have done it all ready as the sweet young thing who puts a little of her favorite perfume on a love letter and it is effective in a great number of cases.

Detroit has produced some of the best advertising men, and the best advertising in the world, and we should be proud of them - men like McManus who believed it's the man (or the firm) behind a product that counted and wrote his advertising accordingly and did a wonderful job for Cadillac Motors establishing it as the top car in both style and performance. His advertisement was a masterpiece and one of the most powerful ads ever written.

Henry Ewald handled the advertising for General Motors for a good many years and anybody can see the results - it is the biggest firm in their field and Henry helped to make it so. He was a shrewd German with lots of ideas and the capabilities to put them across in a strong and believable way. He was a terrific worker and had the old German nose for details.

Lou Maxon was a strong character with strong likes and dislikes, with a background as an editor of his own small newspaper, printing salesman, copy writer and a wonderful ability to write strong, short but powerful headlines that have the power to stop you and make you read them. His ads for Gillette Razor Company and Heinz/99 Verities have helped to make these companies the biggest in their fields. He's a wonderful boss, judging by what his employees say, and he's been strong for Detroit and is always helping in any of our drives or activities.

Another advertising man I admired was, LeRoy Peletier, who was with the E.M.F. Automobile Company. He was a very nervous but very energetic Frenchman who talked fast, used short snappy phrases and his ads looked and acted like him. His ads were a series of short snappy statements, or arguments, finally ending up with a bang. His handling of the sales of E.M.F. to the Studebaker Company was a successful adventure that placed him among the top advertising men of the period - at least that is my motion. His character never changed and he ran his estate, with his Shetland ponies and greyhound dogs, with the same nervous energy. I imagine he attained whatever he tried to do with it whether it was a monetary or just a hobby problem.

There were many others who did really successful jobs in the advertising field. Behind any good advertising man, with his fundamental ideas, were specialists: writers who could put romance in their words down to the men who could write bolts and nuts, men with a sense of humor. All these writers had to start with an idea and write to make an ad interesting, snappy and short to leave the reader with a better idea of the product. There had to be layout men with a sense of putting pictures and words together like a good florist makes up a bouquet with lots of color sense and taste in his makeup. Some people are born with this ability but it requires lots of practice. Another necessity was to have men with the ability to assign art work and type setting to the right men as that means a lot to the finished ad - as the right artist might give it the right flavor, whether it should portray humor, good looks, sex appeal, or any flavor that the ad really demands.

To make an ad, as a simple, is very important and requires a lot of thought and ingenuity - it's not easy but it's very important. Advertising is a necessity these days - but the buyer should always remember one thing. The fact is that the advertiser only gives you the good side of his product. Even with the help of the Better Business Bureau they can fool you with small and clever tricks and it's finally up to you when buying to look, feel, ask questions and get all the facts before buying - for when you buy it, it's too late as many men learn the hard way. You can't blame the advertiser no more that you can blame a blond who hides her imperfections before marrying you - it's just part of life, "the adventure of living".

I always thought the man who figured out how to charge for national advertising was a genius. They get a commission from the magazines if they have three different advertisers who use space in the national magazine with service costs, and a lot of other costs on top of that. As the advertiser cannot place this ad by himself, he makes the agency business a necessity. Besides the local men, in the advertising business, we have branches of firms from New York, Chicago who have large number of Detroit employees but they are run from their home offices and the "gravy" goes out of this City. You know, as well as I do, that "gravy" is a nice thing whether it's on a piece of meat or in your bank account.

Around about 19--, radio became another advertising medium and a good one. It gave the advertising man another problem as this meant just clever use of words condensed into short periods and it usually meant cutting down on other advertising mediums as all advertising money is budgeted. Then another medium, Television, entered the picture with both talking and pictures. Eventually color entered this picture and required new methods, new ideas, costlier as you had to have set ups, scenery, models, photographers, musicians, singers, dancers and demonstrators all of which are costly - but practically all advertisers had to use it and make it get results. The television advertising is a wonderful medium. As of necessity its got to be short and it can use so many different angles, sex, music, humor, arguments, slyness, facts, price and all kinds of trick photography with action and it's hard to refuse to look at it. Of course it’s got to be connected with a good television show which requires a lot of money and limits the clientele. A good spot is a necessity.

I like the Wrigley Gum advertising that ran in 1958-1959, simple good music with very simple pictures illustrating its claims, easy to understand and pleasing to the eyes and ears. Gillette with is hook up with sports, and the use of humor, is good advertising. Other firms like General Electric, General Motors, Ford use pictorial views, scenic pictures and good looking models, sometimes a little music and dancing which are connected with a top-notch television show, or old movies, and I believe they get results. Dodge used dance music, and corny music and songs, and people seem to love it - and pictures of their cars with mechanical and beauty angles as sales arguments. Lestoil, with its wonderful descriptive name, did a good job on television with their moving pictures and cartoons illustrating its reasons for being used and they needed very little other advertising. Television should jack up other advertising mediums and make them tell their story with less words and better illustrations or cartoons that create a feeling of movement and action. They will need color, high grade layouts and that means better writers, better layout men and better artists as that will be a hard job. Maybe the best way is to cut out radio and television as an advertising medium and have shorter periods (maybe four hours a day) with fewer shows but either educational or entertaining ones. A small fee for using your radio or television would cut down on a lot of wasted time and give ourselves, and our children, more time to study and do the things we ought to do like cooking, studying and just talking things over with our families or friends, helping those who need help and encouragement.

Some advertising is stuck up on fences, folders put in your mail box, telephone calls, signs on busses, cars and trucks. All loud-speaker propaganda cars should be against the law as they are mostly impractical and not worth using anyway because they only distract, annoy and disturb most of the people who have enough trouble to concentrate on the things they have to do in this life. We have enough noise we can't get away from - let's have periods of quiet so we can concentrate and do some thinking about our problems. It seems the only place with real quiet is a church, between services, and it's one place I can go and really enjoy that quiet feeling that rests you all over including your mind, your heart and your body.