copy is the man who aims
your policy.

When you stop to reflect what your _space_ costs and that the wrong talk
is just _noise_--_bang_ without _biff_--you must see the necessity and
_sanity_ of putting the _right man behind the gun_.

_Don't_ tolerate an ambition on your ad-man's part to indulge in a
lurking desire to be a literary light.

People read his advertising to discover what your buyers have just
brought from the market and what you are asking for "O. N. T." They buy
the _newspaper_ for information and recreation and are satisfied with
the degree of poetry and persiflage dished up in its _reading_ columns.

_Don't exaggerate._ Poetic licenses are not valid in business prose. The
American people _don't_ want to be humbugged and the merchant who
figures upon too many fools, finds _himself_ looking into a mirror,
usually about a half hour after the sheriff has come to look over the
premises.

_Don't imitate._ Advertising is a _special measure_ garment. Businesses
are not built in _ready-made_ sizes. Copy which fits somebody else's
selling plans, won't fit your store without sagging at the chest or
riding up at the collar. Duplicated _argument_ and duplicated _results_
are not twins. Your policy of publicity must be _specially_ measured
from your policy of merchandising.

_Don't put your advertising in charge of an amateur._ Let somebody else
stand the expense of his educational blunders. Remember you are making a
plea before the bar of public confidence. Your ad-writer is an advocate.
_Like a bad lawyer, he can lose a good case by not making the most of
the facts at hand._

_Don't get the "sales" habit._ "Sales" are stimulants. When held too
often their effect is _weakening_. The merchant who continually yells
"_bargain_" is like the old hen who was always crying "fox." When the
real article did come along, none of her chicks _believed it_.

_Don't use fine print._ Make it easy for the reader to find out about
your business. There are ten million pairs of eyeglasses worn in
America, and every owner of them buys something.

_And Don't start unless you mean to stick._ The patron saint of the
successful advertiser _hates a quitter_.

The Doctor whose Patients Hang On

Out in China _all_ things are _not_ topsy turvy. _Physicians are paid
for keeping people well_ and when their patients fall ill, their weekly
remittances are stopped. The Chinese judge a medical man not by the
number of years _he_