| Points. | |
| 1. Power to attract attention | 40 |
| 2. Power to hold attention | 20 |
| 3. Prominence of the article advertised | 20 |
| 4. Brevity of necessary information | 10 |
| 5. Composition | 10 |
And now, how do we stand in comparison with other nations in this matter of effective advertising? It is universally admitted that advertisement is the soul of business. How, then, does the business man of this country compare with the business man of America. Some of our great advertising firms certainly display no very marked inferiority, but as a rule it is unfortunately true that to glance through the announcements in an American magazine is to be brought face to face with the enormously superior ability in design of the American over the Englishman. Here you have, as it were, your finger on the pulse of a country's commerce; you can feel the vigorous beats, or the languid and anæmic current. And the main reason is just this: that the American never loses sight of the fact that the first three essentials in attracting and keeping attention are novelty, novelty, novelty. Their skill in attracting attention in new ways is always a matter of admiration.
The question altogether is one of far more importance than it may seem on first consideration; it is hardly too much to say that the prosperity of a nation's trade depends upon its ability in attractive advertising.
Advertisement is an art of its own, and if you are going to advertise to any considerable extent and do it yourself, either your business must suffer to allow you time to do your advertising well, or your advertising must suffer so that you may properly attend to your business.
ELEVENTH.
TWELFTH.
Of course, it is the advertising that suffers. If you do it yourself, sooner or later it becomes a worry, and when a reminder arrives that your copy is due very likely your instructions will be to repeat the last, or possibly, if you have a minute or two to spare, you will sit down and grind out a lot of nonsense which no one cares to read. If you wish to make any genuine effort properly to employ the most important factor in commerce, get someone who understands the art to do it for you; engage a good man, and do not expect to get the same for five pounds as you would for ten pounds.