The Primrose Path of Publicity
ASHORT time ago there appeared in the Spectator an admirably persuasive article on publicity. It had only one lack : while arguing the merits of the art on general grounds, it omitted to specify any par- ticular line along which it should travel towards the goal of successa success which in the United States of America has. already. been so signally achieved. In the 'hone of remedying this deficiency, some. few instances .(culled by the American MerCury from its native Press) of the thing in actual practice are submitted, for it must be of obvious advantage to all publicity agents to study the precise methods of the 'world's leading masters in the craft.
Religion shall of right be given the first place—of right and of necessity, for one feels that in these days of diminishing congregations all concerned will welcome any 'device outside the 'common rut to regather their errant flocks. This, then, is -one method as followed in Tennessee (whose courts punish believers in evolution) as recorded in the Johnson City Chronicle.:—, - "HOLINESS TABERNACLE, - 408, West Main Street. Mrs. William Price, Pastor: The Rev. Pat Palmer, who eats no breakfast and prays longer than he eats any meal, who has been in jail several times and had a rope around his neck a time or two and is now on his way to Australia, is with us: Come and take a peep at this peculiar The Washington Star contains a simpler and perhaps more direct appeal :— _ ," Synagog, Sixth Street, 8 p.m. ; Lecture Subject.; SIX PER CENT. INTEREST : The Ethics of a Business Man."
But if, unfortunately, you are' not a churchgoer there is at least time for religion by post, and something of this kind (from an advertisement in the Burlington Hawkeye) may suit :-
" Any questions on morals or conduct ?. Answers by mail by a clergyman. Send self-addressed stamped envelope. Merchants National Rank, Burlington; Iowa."
Or you may be in need of someone like " A. C. Burnham, Professor of -Life Planning," in Michigan State 'College, who will assist-you in your painful path towards sweetness and light. • • With a pleasant smack of culture comes-the prospectus , of the National College of Chiraonsors as printed 'in The Master Barber of Chicago. The crofter undertakes "k cover the field of scientific attainment in behalf of the Tonsorial Craft" and " to put the individual:inalune.with therinfinite and-lead him as fat as material service can go toward the threshold of -the highest krelt of existence."-
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'in the" " Wanted " advertisement -columns of the New York Evening Graphic we find:- .
" Motion Picture Studio job wanted, ambitious 17-year-old boy, half lo-wer *jaw missing, comical' appearance, desires to beco00 comedian," . . . and to the advertisement is appended the inducement that a-Graphic " -vocational expert !' has examined the ambitious 'Youth and warrants him and his jaw entirely qualified for the job. Nor are the interests of movie fans neglected in Key West, Florida, since one of the cinema houses there advises the audience in big capitals :- " BE CAREFUL WHERE YOUR HANDS ARE IN CASE THE LIGHTS SHOULD GO ON."
Not strictly, of course, an advertisement, but as an instance of the subtle use of indirect publicity, comes a clipping from Lexington, Kentucky, which, in announcing the approaching hanging of a negro, observes that
"the noose has been tied by T. C. Fuller, the Sheriff's fourteen-year-old son, who learned knot and noose tying as a Boy Scout."
Finally, to shame our own puling paragraphists, here is a puff from the advertisements in the Century Magazine :- " Romancer, soldier, poet, gallant sportsman, great artist and great man, a Donn Byrne is born to bless this drab world of ours with his bold, colorful, high-hearted stories once in a hundred years. A nobler Byron, a more musical Dumas, a more vital Meredith, a swifter moving Scott—here he is, Donn Byrne I " Must one look forward with trembling anticipation to the day when the advertisement columns of the Spectator will contain such fine things ? M. J. C. M.
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