Why Bill-Posting Is a Good Medium
Repetition means reputation.
Celebrities are often credited with having said things which they never thought of. There are a hundred and one stories told on Abraham Lincoln that poor Honest Abe never even heard.
Barnum is quoted as having said: “The American public like to be humbugged,” but it is a significant fact that whatever feature the wily P. T. brought out—whether it was Jenny Lind or Jumbo—he always gave the dear public a good run for their money.
And so it always will be—you must deliver the goods in order to make good. Bill-posting is an accredited medium of advertising simply because it deserves it—it has won its spurs.
Posting has many advantages over other methods of advertising. First may be mentioned the large display which it makes possible, and its consequent conspicuousness. You simply cannot get away from it, and, consciously or otherwise, it burns its way into the mind through an ever alert vision. It appeals to masses and classes—every one who passes. The size of an eight-sheet poster is 84 inches by 112 inches, and, outside of painted boards and electric signs, it is not possible to get such a display in any other medium of advertising. The possibility of reproducing a trade-mark, figure, or the article itself, in mammoth size tends to impress it upon the mind in an uncommon way and with great force.
Another distinct advantage which bill-posting has over most other advertising mediums is the opportunity it offers for the use of colors. Colors are agreeable to the eye, they command attention, and the advertiser who fails to utilize the full possibilities of color in getting out his posters is missing his opportunity. It costs just as much to post a poorly printed sheet or an ineffective one- or two-color poster as it does one printed in bright, clear-cut, attention-commanding colors which the eye cannot pass.
Without going into the respective results to be obtained, posting is the cheapest medium for local advertising. The cost per town is less than any respectable sort of a campaign could be conducted for in any other medium.
It has been contended that poster advertising is only good as publicity advertising for a well-known product needing mainly a constant reminder to keep it before the public. I believe, however, that posting is effective and can be made profitable for even a new product, for, while a detailed story cannot be told on a poster, one single argument can be brought out on each poster, and, in time, the complete argument given.