There is no doubt that current slang is usually spicy, forceful and often convenient. But those who resort to its use have, as a rule, a limited vocabulary. Much slang means looseness of expression and it is therefore dangerous to resort to it except in rare cases. Slang, as employed by the advertising writer, is a means of securing raciness of description and pic in appeal. It is suited only to adver tising addressed to men, to a certain, limited class of goods, and preferably in the more informal meth ods of advertising. Even then, if colloquialisms of equal force are available it is better to use them than slang.
14. Word atmosphere or sugges tion of mood, place, surroundings, or the atmosphere created by words in their concrete, specific usage has not been sufficiently emphasized by the writer of ad vertisements. If an advertisement is to arouse the desire to want a certain thing then the imaginative faculty must be stimulated. Atmosphere is by an understanding of word values and by definite, suggestive imagery. The specific imagery stimu lates the imaginative faculty, the reader fills in his own experiences and emotions between the lines. This factor will put the reader in the right mood to ward being convinced.
Objects, for example, whose chief merit is their sanitary value might well suggest the atmosphere of _ a hospital,perfectly sterile surroundings, and abso lute, rigid cleanliness. In advertising surgical dress
ings, .first-aid outfits, fumigators and objects needed in accidents and illness, the following setting is con vincing: We depend on no ordinary sterilization. B & B surgical dressings are twice sterilized—once after being sealed. It is done by costly apparatus, in the most efficient way. They are packed in rooms filled with washed air, in rooms equipped like oper ating rooms. The workers are in uniform. Then we take extreme measures to bring the products to you sterile—just as they left us. •. . . They are made by chemists who for 22 years have been serv ing physicians and hospitals.
In the following advertisement atmosphere is se cured by means of strikingly suggestive adjectives: California offers you this, from her sunlit val leys—California Raisin Bread, made with Sun Maid Raisins. Plenty of these deep-juiced, full flavored, sugar-laden nuggets of energy make this the true fruit food.
Sun-Maid Brand Raisins are choice California white grapes—too delicate to ship—sun-cured in the open. vineyards. Nowhere else do such grapes grow, and no other grapes yield such a flavor in their sun-brewed juices.