Bad Names

Persons whose ears are attuned to advertising events last week heard a shrill, tinkling sound as a large advertising glass house was struck by a swiftly moving missile. The glass house was the elaborate structure of testimonial advertising currently so conspicuous. The missile was an attack on testimonial advertising launched by Frederick C. Kendall, editor of Advertising & Selling, fortnightly trade-paper. The damage, considerable, was difficult to estimate.

Three-fold was Editor Kendall s attack on testimonials. First he got an article from Earnest Elmo Calkins, famed literary critic and exponent of advertising.* Under the title: "Lucky Strikes Save Florida's Crew," Mr. Calkins deplored the fact that Hero George Fried had hardly docked before he was endorsing Lucky Strikes via radio and newspapers. It is Mr. Calkins' agency that has created the famed Fire Demon in the Hartford Fire Insurance advertisements; to the testimonial demon Mr. Calkins is equally antagonistic.

Next came an article by Paul M. Hollister, a vice president at Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn. Mr. Hollister asked a hypothetical question. What, said he, would happen if publishers, who have already freed their pages from patent medicine advertising, should now refuse to accept any testimonial advertisement that was not certified as unpaid for and voluntary? Mr. Hollister predicted that such a procedure would cause anguish among many agency men charged with formulating campaign ideas, would also grieve Park Avenue females who would be deprived of "their most profitable racket."

Finally, Editor Kendall put Advertising & Selling back of the anti-testimonial movement with an editorial cheering for the Hollister suggestion that high grade publishers should ban the bought testimonial.

The testimonial dates back to advertising's patent medicine era. Familiar in the old days was the tale in which an ailing person, having "taken two bottles of your marvelous remedy," was quickly restored to blooming health. Later, as the conscience of advertisers and the standards of publishers improved, testimonials declined. It was probably the much discussed Pond's Cream series, featuring endorsements from Marie of Rumania and many another celebrity, which marked the return of the testimonial to advertising's most polished circles. Outstanding current examples of testimonial campaigns are the advertising of Pond's Cream, Simmons' Beds, Lux Soap, Fleischmann's Yeast and Herbert Tareyton, Old Gold and Lucky Strike cigarets.

Good, Bad. It should be noticed that even Mr. Hollister distinguishes between the good testimonial (unpaid for, voluntary) and the bad testimonial (bought, solicited). It is difficult to see how any publisher can question the advertiser's word concerning the legitimacy of testimonials and it is even more difficult to imagine how the reading public can tell whether a testimonial represents a donation or a purchase. From the standpoint of popular faith in advertising it would appear that one rotten testimonial apple would corrupt the entire barrel and that the distinction between good and bad testimonials will become as tenuous as the now somewhat archaic distinction between "good" and "bad" trusts. It is likely, however, that Mr. Kendall and his associates are interested primarily in the moral effect of their crusade. As far as immediate profits are concerned testimonial campaigns have been almost universally successful. They are an obvious and easy solution to the problem of what-to-say-about-a-product. Yet should a pronounced sentiment against testimonials develop, originators of advertising ideas may pay more attention to What's What and less attention to Who's Who.

*Mr Calkins is president of Calkins & Hoiden Inc., prominent Manhattan agency, books on advertising include Louder Please (Atlantic Monthly Press, $2.50), The Business of Advertising (D. Appleton & Co., $2.00), Business, the Civilizer (Little, Brown, & Co., $3.00), and The Advertising Man (Scnbner s, $1.25).