Tag: Duane Jones
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More along the same line
More thoughts spawned by rereading the Duane Jones book on advertising, and listening to those auto dealer training films at bedtime. Both sources were aimed at salesmen, not customers. The training films were not even available to customers. Because they were “secret”, both were openly crass and cynical, recommending sneaky tricks. BUT: Both agreed crassly…
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First ads
Someone on substack was defending the need for advertising when done for honest purposes. I commented: Yes! Advertising is part of nature. “Buy my pollen, get a free honey drink!” This seems like something I must have written here already, but oddly I didn’t. Despite all my musings on the Duane Jones book, and my…
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Is it cheaper?
Now that I’ve found the Duane Jones book again, I’m reading it again. He was writing in the early 50s when radio and magazines were established but TV was too new to quantify. He was mostly discussing household products sold by radio soap operas and magazine ads. He calculated the advertising cost to acquire one…
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Tiktok switches to Toyota
I’ve overused the Toyota analogy. In this case it’s literal. Until now Japan and China have followed diametrically opposite methods to take over US industries. Neither was aggressive. In both cases our “own” industries happily SURRENDERED the field to the foreign competitor without a fight. Our industries HATE to make things and employ people. They…
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Today is RYPBLTTFMYEBNMWIWNE Day!
Today is Relive Your Past By Listening to the First Music You Ever Bought No Matter What It Was No Excuses Day. (Probably one of Adrian Koopersmith’s special days.) The website says: Think about the first album or singles you ever purchased. Listen to those recordings and think about what was going on in your…
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Great old idea
Via ReligionUnplugged, a British preacher is offering a 15-minute web program of meditation and prayer. Smart idea. Many people are still solidly Christian but got tired of devoting a half day to church, especially when church didn’t bother to defend them against the “virus” holocaust. If the priests won’t fight the most satanic supercrime in…
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It must work, but why?
The Trump cult email spam continues along the same lines. It’s not political or economic in any way. Nothing about borders or walls or jobs or China or Israel. It’s all pure whipsawing emotions, like an obsessed menopausal ex-wife. Today’s subject line: “I would never have expected this from YOU, of all people!” Marketers must…
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Parallel failure
The jokes in previous item reminded me of another modern problem that Duane Jones, writing around 1951, would understand. Jones’s primary rule for advertisers and marketers: REPEATS WHEN SAMPLED. First get the customer to SAMPLE the product, for free or for a nominal price. If the product satisfies a need or desire, the customer will…
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What do they really owe?
Compact mag says colleges owe students transparency about the actions and investments of their endowments. Maybe, but that’s not the FIRST thing colleges owe students. For 70 years all media and culture and corporations have been falsely advertising college as necessary for life and work. Purely false, and most parents and youngsters have figured it…
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Old advice for “journalists”
In reading about McBee-type card systems, ran across Calvin Mooers. He was one of the more interesting characters of early computing. I’ll feature his Zatocard system later, but first want to write up his best-known observation: An information retrieval system will tend not to be used whenever it is more painful and troublesome for a…
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WPA salesmen?
I’ve been focusing on WPA and related work since 2008. This year, for no particular reason, I’ve been focusing on sales and advertising after completely ignoring the subject for 72 years. Got curious about the connection. WPA definitely employed white-collar workers who had been discarded along with the skilled laborers when Wall Street bombed America…
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Universal NIP
Burge continues to delve into the details of NIPs. He shows plenty of survey data to prove that NIPs aren’t just uninterested in religion; we’re uninterested in EVERY SINGLE institution, from politics to corporations to journalism to entertainment. I commented with some sales-training wisdom: It might help if the churches or newspapers would ASK why…
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No product, no sampling
Carrying on with CH Smith’s point that AI is winning because there are no better human products to compare with. Certainly true of “journalism”. The professionals, whether still working in MSM or working elsewhere as fake “independents”, have the same arrogance toward their audience. They know what’s best, and they’re PROUD that their product is…
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Harlow misses the Product
Linked in previous, worth a reprint. = = = = = START 2014 REPRINT: Since I’m thinking about ad jingles….. One local business has produced an absolutely brilliant jingle. Most radio jingles have a brief version, a full version and a concerto version. The brief version is 5 or 10 seconds long, just the first…
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Brilliant technique
This Ford dealer training film is a BRILLIANT application of a classic training technique. It’s a “play inside a play”, with the actors trying to read an organized script while all sorts of crap goes wrong. An actor is missing, forcing the director to skip a scene. Union workmen bust in and start setting up…
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