The hobby or "suppressed function" as a means of sectiring preliminary interest has provided more than one good opening in the past. In advertising, the catch line which has to do' with a hobby will often at tract attention as will nothing else.
Sports and pastimes may be systematically "played up." Golf, boating, canoeing, yachting, fishing, bath ing and the like are shown, by means of attractive crayon and word pictures. The pose of the golfer who has just made a telling stroke or the "fore" of the player about to drive makes a strong appeal to devotees of the game.
To extend the appeal of the "hobby" advertisement, a double appeal is often made, as in the advertisement of the Union Pacific. In this, the drawing makes a "hobby" appeal, while the copy suggests ocean bath ing in January. , 9. Interest value of speaking, the narrative or dramatic form of copy has more attention and interest value than any other form. We are all Pond of a story and an advertisement that is dramatic in its appeal has more chance of being read than a dry recital of facts. Under the dramatic form may be classed the incident, the monolog, the dialog and the story. These will be discussed in a later chapter.
The following lines have decided interest value be cause of the incident form: Napoleon was deathly afraid of a Razor.
The Emperor•Napoleon permitted anyone near him with an open razor. He did his own shav ing and, owing to a sensitive skin, never could get a razor that pleased him. The one that annoyed him least was picked up during the Peninsular Cam paign and had a blade of Saracen steel.
Today nearly all the World's Rulers use a Gil lette Safety Razor. The latest convert is Yuan Shih-kai, the great man of China.
Another is the Premier of New Zealand.
In the present war the Gillette is used by the leading Generals and by some 3,000,000 men in the trenches and on all fronts.
10. Proper use of type.—A great deal of adver tising matter which is interesting in itself fails to get attention: its type is difficult to read. Type must not only be pleasing in appearance but must be de cidedly legible. Every stroke and every letter must be not only instantly visible but instantly readable with normal eyesight.
The type should be made to emphasize the impor tant matter and subordinate the less important part of the text by variation. In the advertisement of Crane's Linen Lawn, on page 57, notice how easily the variety in the kind and size of type leads the eye on to read the entire text.
11. Emphasis secured by .advertisement that employs type which emphasizes too many things is not easily read. If everything is emphasized, the result is no emphasis at all. The eye and mind are confused. On the other hand, if nothing is empha sized and the type is the same thruout, the most im portant matter does not dominate sufficiently and will lack distinction.
Mr. Benjamin Sherbow in his book "Making Type Work" gives a good illustration of securing emphasis and readability by rearrangement of type, design and the use of initials to add color.
Notice, in the illustrations given, that the sin gle tabulation of the items makes the advertisement much more readable than when the items are ar ranged as in the first example. The heavier bor der gives distinctiveness and consequently greater interest.
12. Breaking up the reading the re arrangement of the text, notice that the meaning is grasped the more readily because the eye immediately take's in the gist of matter that is broken up. The text bilt not the sense is broken up.
In the 'following illustrations the second is much more easily read: 13. Use of to Mr. Sherbow, subheads in advertising print are used for the follow ing reasons: 1. To accent the natural divisions of the story.
2. To present a quick summary.
3. To put more life and sparkle into a plain type page.
4. To avoid monotony.
5. To increase the number of places in the text at which the interest of the indifferent reader might be aroused.
Subheads should be so spaced that there is no ques tion as to which section or paragraph of the text they belong, whether above or below. In the wedding cake advertisement, the headings are arranged with proper and pleasing emphasis. The variety of type puts sparkle into the whole advertisement and accents the chief points. The same is true of the Crane adver tisement on page 57.
14. Importance of letter spacing is meant "the placing of pieces of type of metal of varying degrees of thickness between single letters of type, between words, between lines and between para graphs." A word should not suggest a collection of single letters thus: but should suggest a whole word thus : There should not be too wide a space between words. The spacing employed in this book is correct from the point of view of ease in reading. This is true too of the spacing between lines and paragraphs. The spacing employed in the advertisements displayed in this chapter is such that the text reads easily. The subheads too are properly spaced.
15. Construction and the factors already touched upon, the construction of sentences and paragraphs, and the choice of words are of great importance in getting an advertisement read. Short sentences, short paragraphs, the use of simple words that create definite images—all help to stimulate in terest. These will lie considered more fully in the chapter on "Word Values in Advertising."