Advertising Information

By Donald Hammond

According to this law an observer does not analyze his feelings of agreeableness and disagreeableness, strain and relaxation, comfort and distress, so as to attribute them solely to their actual sources. No matter what the real source of discomfort, it colors all that we do or think at the moment. Thus when I have a bad toothache everything else in the world seems wrong too - the weather was never quite so mean, my friends were never quite so insistent nor my enemies so annoying. In other words, the discomfort caused by a toothache spreads over everything that happens while the ache lasts. Things otherwise pleasant become less interesting, otherwise indifferent things become decidedly annoying while the ordinary mildly annoying thing becomes a source of acute misery.

Similarly in reading advertisements, the feeling aroused by each item of the copy and the arrangement tends to spread over the whole experience, including the association presented. The association will be more or less effective, vivid. and permanent, depending, in part, on the way in which it is dressed out, the company in which it is found. and on the past experience which it revives.

Literary and Artistic Aspects of Copy

The literary and artistic aspects of copy and arrangement are therefore highly important, on strictly psychological grounds. These factors will be particularly developed in other articles. It will suffice here to point out what features of an advertisement may arouse definite feeling-tone and thus help determine the strength of the association. Chief among these features are the following.

1. Form and Arrangement

The character, quality, and direction of lines; the shapes and ratios of masses, spaces, and areas; the relations of balance, harmony, stability - all these are items in an elaborate alphabet of feeling and expression. As much may often be said by the appropriate use of these various elements and principles of arrangement as by the text of the copy itself. The associations presented in the text may be either reinforced or confirmed or weakened and denied through the feeling-tone aroused by the formal arrangement of the material.

2. Color, Hues, intensities, brightness, harmony, and balance

In the lives of civilized people colors and color combinations soon come to possess the power of provoking strong and varied feelings of excitement and calm, and their related feelings. The appropriateness of colors to commodities, qualities, purposes. the physiological significance and the historical suggestiveness of color as a means of expression, the facts of color preference, the value of color in conveying definiteness and richness of meaning and description. all these items are important in thc general task of presenting and impressing an association.

3. Words

Words are the very soul of thinking. Not only are the associations between need and commodity usually represented in verbal terms but the very character of the verbal dress has much to do with the effectiveness of the association. In themselves, as combinations of spoken and heard sounds. words provoke distinct feelings of attraction and repulsion. In combination with other words this element of euphony is given still greater prominence, especially when the influence of rhyme, rhythm. force. stress. and the factors of unity. coherence, and emphasis are added. In general it is well to remember that sounds which are easy to speak are usually agreeable to listen to. while sounds that are difficult of articulation are likely to be unpleasant to the ear.

In selecting trade names, in devising slogans. headlines, memory verses, etc.. it is frequently useful to supplement this general test of "Easy pronunciation means agreeable sound," by the following more definite rules of euphony :

1. Abrupt consonants are easiest in alternation with vowels - as in such words as " cataleptic," " epileptic," " pitter patter."
2. Mute sounds and vowels suggest lightness and rapidity -as in the word " tintinabulation."
3. Liquids or sibilants and vowels suggest soft. slow melody - as " Carmen Sylva," " Mediterranean."
4. Sharp mutes (p, t, k, f, th) and flat mutes (b, v, d, g) cannot easily be sounded together. Notice the difficulty in pronouncing " Lake Ktahden."
5. Cumulation of consonants makes difficult pronunciation- as in " adjudged," " pledged.">br? 6. Long vowels out of accent are hard to pronounce. Note the " u " in " contribute " as compared with the same vowel in " contribution."
7. It is better to avoid too frequent repetition of the same or similar sounds - Gilbey's Spey Royal runs swift as the Spey, The famous swift river of Scotland.
8. It is desirable to avoid clash of vowels in the middle of words and between words. It is not so bad if one is short and the other long. Thus compare " go over" and " go off."

In addition to these purely phonetic factors there must be considered the literary associations which cluster about words. regardless of their origin or construction. Thus "horse" and " steed " denote the same animal, but the two words convey very different feeling-tone. " Lemon squash " may be as easy to pronounce as " lemon crush," but the latter sounds much more like an agreeable drink than does the former.

Other topics in this arena are Typography and Illustrations.

Donald "DonOmite" Hammond has been a freelance webdesigner and programmer for over 10 years. He has done marketing of himself and his products as well as customers' products on their websites.