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PHILADELPHIA ORIGINALITY
PAST AND PRESENT
It is strange, is it not, that Philadelphia should
be backward in the employment of modern adver
tising? For Philadelphia in times past showed great
originality in this respect, and has been the scene of
many great advertising achievements.
The first great national advertising campaign
was originated and carried to success by a Phila
delphia banker. Jay Cooke sold $1,240,000,000 of war
bonds for Lincoln by advertising.
Modern department store advertising has been
carried to its high development as a result of the
( pioneering work of a Philadelphia merchant John
Wanamaker. His first day's sales on April 8, 1861,
amounted to $24.67. Of this, 67 cents was retained
to make change on the next day, and the $24 was
put back into advertising.
Philadelphia is the home of the largest periodical
publishing house in the world, a house whose success
has been built upon advertising. The very first
issue of The Ladies' Home Journal was advertised
at an expense of $400. Today The Curtis Publish
ing Company invests between $200,000 and $300,000
a year in advertising.
The prosperity of its three great publications is
due to the tremendous power which they exert upon
millions of consumers a power which thousands
of manufacturers employ by purchasing advertising
space in their columns.
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Too few manufacturers in Philadelphia have
learned the lessons taught in their own city by
history and present-day example.
But history and example should never be fol
lowed blindly. The essential point is originality in
adapting established methods to individual needs.
Some one has said that originality is of two
kinds originality of thought and originality of
expression. Applied to industry, this might be
paraphrased as originality of manufacture and
originality of distribution.
For decades Philadelphia led in industry because
she possessed originality in manufacture. Her great
prestige was built upon the ability to make machines,
devise processes and organize production. Most
of her great pioneers found thus the outlet for
their originality because that was what the times
demanded.
Today, the times demand originality of distri
bution. Those same pioneers, were they living and
working today, would be devoting their energies to
that kind of originality. For they were men quick
to feel the necessities of the era. But the newer
generation in Philadelphia has clung to the tradition
of originality in manufacture and has not sensed the
new needs for originality in distribution.
Where Philadelphia manufacturers have grasped
the new weapons, it has sometimes been only in the
spirit of imitator rather than in that of innovator.
For example, a certain industry here saw that
its competitors elsewhere were using advertising
with large units of space. The Philadelphia manu
facturer followed suit. Some time later the original
advertiser reduced his advertising to small units.
Perhaps his purpose was to put his competitors
to test, and see if they had the courage of their con
victions. At least, that was the effect. The Phila
delphia firm, instead of thinking the problem out
for itself, at once took this as an indication of the
failure of large-space advertising, and also reduced.
Then when competition was thoroughly "shaken
down," the original advertiser came back again with
even larger-space than before, and once more became
the dominating factor in the field.
If Philadelphia manufacturers are to employ
modern methods, they must do so in the thorough
conviction that these methods are effective, and not
simply because their opponents have been using
them.
This is true originality the kind which made
Philadelphia great in manufacture.
And it is a secret of success in advertising.
THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY, INDEPENDENCE SQUARE, PHILADELPHIA
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I Yjf I The Ladies' Home Journal The Saturday Evening Post The Country Gentleman Jufi
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