Advertising Characters
The main difference between a trade-mark and an "advertising character"
is in the matter of affixation. A trade-mark, to be valid, must be
affixed to the goods, while an advertising character is often used only
in the advertisements of the product, though most advertisers use their
trade-marks also in advertising.
But there is another difference. A trade-mark is inflexible. After
having been once adopted and registered, it cannot be changed in design
or wording. If changes are made in it, the validity of the trade-mark
is vitiated proportionately. On the other hand, all kinds of changes
are being constantly made in advertising characters, though advertisers
are careful to preserve the main features of a character, after having
adopted it, in order that it may be the touchstone of remembrance in
the reader's mind.
It has occurred to various advertisers, who have been impressed by
the infinite variety of pictures in advertising, that it would be a
good idea for them to put some permanent pictorial feature in their
advertisements. This feature--a human figure, or a decoration, or a
group of figures--serves as an identifying landmark to the voyager in
these weltering seas of change. With this principle established and
followed year after year in all advertisements of any product, it is
feasible to change the entire artistic treatment of the subject from
time to time, yet still hold to the symbolic figures which connect, in
the reader's mind, all the past advertising with the new series.
This line of reasoning underlies the adoption and use of advertising
characters.
An "advertising character"--this is a rather crude term, but it
seems to express the idea better than anything else--differs from
an advertising illustration in that the character is carried on
continuously in the advertising, in some form, while an illustration is
dropped for something new.
[Illustration: _Peter Henderson's famous gardener._]
For example, Peter Henderson's gardener appears, and has appeared,
in every advertisement of Peter Henderson's seeds for many years. In
most of the Peter Henderson advertisements, the gardener is the only
illustration.
The Lackawanna Railroad has used Phoebe Snow for many years in its
advertisements as its star passenger on the dirtless and dustless
road to Buffalo. The scheme of picturing this dainty white-clad girl
in connection with the advertising of a railroad is based on a very
clever idea. Railroad journeys are generally supposed to be dusty and
uncomfortable; but here is an attractive young lady who does not even
go to the trouble of changing her white dress when she makes a trip
on the Lackawanna. The use of Phoebe Snow as an advertising symbol is
suggestive of the cleanliness and comfort and safety of the road.
[Illustration: _The Dutch boy is taken out of the trade-mark and made
to do stunts._]
It sometimes happens that an advertising character is a figure or
a device that has been formally adopted as a trade-mark of the
advertiser's product. The National Lead Company's Dutch painter boy is
a device of this kind. While a trade-mark must not be changed, a human
figure, used as the trade-mark, may be put into another illustration,
and used separately. This has been done in the National Lead Company's
advertising. Their Dutch Boy has been depicted in the act of painting a
house, and in giving a lecture on paint.
The Gold Dust Twins have been engaged in laborious but joyous tasks of
various kinds since about 1880. Gold Dust was first made in 1883, but
the twins, not called at that time "The Gold Dust Twins" had been a
house trade-mark of the N. K. Fairbank Company for two or three years
before that.
[Illustration:
THE
PRUDENTIAL
HAS THE
STRENGTH OF
GIBRALTAR
_The trade-mark of the Prudential Insurance Company._
]
One of the most widely known symbols ever used in advertising is
the representation of the Rock of Gibraltar, which is a feature
of the Prudential Insurance Company's advertising. There is hardly
any doubt that pictures of the Rock have been printed more times in
connection with the Prudential advertising than in all other forms
of representation that have been issued since the art of printed
illustration began.
The conception of the Victor dog, with his head inclined in a curiously
suggestive listening attitude, before the mouthpiece of a phonograph,
with the caption, "His Master's Voice", under the picture, is an
idea that ought to rank among the productions of genius. It would be
interesting to know what the Victor Talking Machine Company thinks its
dog is worth.
[Illustration: _A lady with a smile as inscrutable as that of Mono
Lisa. The advertising symbol of Hubert's Malvina Cream._]
Hubert's Malvina Cream advertising carries a peculiar but strikingly
effective diamond-shaped device showing a woman's smiling face.
The American Bankers' Association, which issues travelers'
cheques, good in every part of the world, has adopted a couple of
travelers--evidently a young man and his wife on their honeymoon
trip--as advertising characters. This well-groomed couple is shown,
in the various advertisements, on the deck of a steamship, before the
Pyramids, in a Venetian gondola, buying curios in the Orient, and in
other places. Before they settle down they will have covered as many
leagues as the Wandering Jew.
The Dutch Cleanser woman, in her eternal chase of dirt, is one of
the best-known advertising characters in current use. This character
is also the trade-mark of the product, and appears on cans of Dutch
Cleanser.
It would be hard to beat this Dutch Cleanser woman as an eye-catcher.
She shows motion, energy in action, and the device has an attractive
simplicity.
[Illustration: _This striking figure of a mountain climber is Peter's
Chocolate Mountaineer. He has reached the summit of the Jungfrau and
is waving his hand to his friends in the valley to let them know he is
there, and that he is about to eat his chocolate._]
An Alpine mountaineer, used as an advertising character of Peter's
Chocolate, has become well-known to every magazine reader in the
country. The use of this figure harmonizes with the phrase "high as the
Alps in quality", which is used in the Peter's Chocolate advertising.
The advantage to be gained, in the long run, by adopting a catchy
and attractive advertising character, is shown by the nation-wide
popularity of the Campbell "Kids". Everybody knows them and their
rippling jingles, and they have no doubt become immensely valuable to
the concern that owns them.
The law of unfair competition protects an advertiser in the use of
an advertising character when the character is the advertiser's own
creation.
In cases where living models are used for this purpose, the advertiser
should remember that a model has a right to sell his services--that is,
to pose--for anybody he pleases. Some advertisers make a contract of
long duration with the models they intend to use, binding them to an
agreement not to pose for any other commercial purpose.
Catch-phrases used in advertising, like Ivory Soap's famous "It
Floats", and Bon Ami's "Hasn't Scratched Yet" are protectable against
infringement and unauthorized use by another than the owner, through
the same principle of law which gives protection to a manufacturer
against a competitor who has imitated his packages, labels and
circulars.
An advertiser's exclusive right to a catch-phrase is conditional on
its constant and persistent use by him. An intermittent use does not
establish a right to use it to the exclusion of others, nor does a use
of the phrase in varying forms of wording, even if the sense of it is
preserved, establish such a right.
It is hardly necessary to say that an exclusive right cannot be created
for a phrase that is not distinctive, such as "Your Opportunity", "Clip
the Coupon", etc. The common language is free to all, and an advertiser
cannot prevent others from using a phrase in their advertisements
merely because he used it in his advertisements first, unless he can
prove that they are using his language with the intention of misleading
the public.
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| [Illustration] |
| =The Owl= |
| =And The Lamp= |
| |
| The owl is the symbol of wisdom--and wisdom |
| means experience, judgment, and knowledge, combined |
| with common-sense. |
| |
| The lamp is the symbol of light and clearness of |
| vision. Used in its figurative sense it is as old as |
| civilization, for the ancients held the sign of a lamp to |
| mean the power of imagination, illuminating the |
| future. |
| |
| The symbol of the owl and the lamp combined |
| means Light leading Wisdom. |
| |
| This is the advertising symbol of the J. Walter |
| Thompson Company. For many years it has been the |
| trade-mark of good advertising. |
| |
| =J. WALTER THOMPSON COMPANY= |
| |
| =New York: 44 East 23rd Street= |
| =Boston: 201 Devonshire Street= |
| =Cincinnati: First National Bank Bldg.= |
| =St. Louis: Odd Fellows Bldg.= |
| =Chicago: The Rookery= |
| =Cleveland: Swetland Bldg.= |
| =Detroit: Trussed Concrete Bldg.= |
| =Toronto: Lumsden Bldg.= |
| =London: 33 Bedford St., Strand= |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
[Illustration: _A clean and bright little fellow who adorns Swift &
Company's advertising._]
In the case of the unauthorized use of a well-known, extensively
advertised catch-phrase, this intention is virtually obvious. For
example, if any soap manufacturer should begin to print the N. K.
Fairbank Company's celebrated question, "Have You a little Fairy in
your Home?" in his advertisements and signs, the courts would doubtless
enjoin him summarily, without inquiry into his intentions. This phrase
has been used so long by the N. K. Fairbank Co., and so much money has
been expended in giving it publicity, that its owners have acquired a
valuable property right in it.
"Money invested in advertising is as much a part of a business as
if invested in buildings or machinery, and when the goods of a
manufacturer have become popular, not only because of their intrinsic
worth, but also by reason of the ingenious, attractive and persistent
manner in which they have become advertised, the good-will thus
created is entitled to protection against unfair competition."
(_Hilson v Foster_, 80 Fed. R. 896--1897.)
[Illustration: _This is the advertising symbol used in Swift's Wool
Soap advertising. The little boy in the receding undershirt used
something "Just as good"._]
An interesting case of one concern attempting to profit by the
advertising of another, was in the courts in 1907.
Kellogg's Toasted Corn Flakes were extensively advertised in a series
of "blind" advertisements in newspapers on successive days. These
advertisements, which were of large size and striking in appearance,
showed the picture of a woman winking, with the admonition "Wink at
Your Grocer and See What You Will Get", followed by the letters "K. T.
C." in large type. The idea of the advertiser was to arouse curiosity
by this form of advertising, and particularly by the letters "K. T. C."
After considerable advertising of this kind he had planned to announce
that "K. T. C." meant "Kellogg's Toasted Corn Flakes", and that any
woman might get a package of this preparation free if she would wink at
her grocer.
[Illustration: _This young couple can get cash anywhere on "A. B. A."
Travelers' Cheques._]
But before the final explanatory advertisements appeared, another
concern selling "Cook's Flaked Rice", a similar product, caused
advertisements to be printed in the same newspapers, in which they
announced that "K. T. C." meant "Keep to Cook's".
[Illustration: _"La Belle Chocolatière," the trade-mark of Walter
Baker's Chocolate._]
The Kellogg firm obtained an injunction against this advertising
on the ground of unfair competition, in that the defendant was
misappropriating the good-will created by the Kellogg Company's
advertising.
The widely advertised phrase used in the Pompeian Massage Cream
advertisements, "Don't envy a good complexion; use Pompeian and have
one", is the result of a prize contest, in which many thousands of
people tried their skill at making phrases.
[Illustration: _The Corticelli kitten, the advertising symbol of the
Nonotuck Silk Co._]
The Central Railroad of New Jersey, in advertising its New York to
Philadelphia service, uses a phrase that is a complete advertisement of
its train service in six words. Trains leave New York for Philadelphia
every hour, leaving at ten o'clock, eleven o'clock, at noon, and so on.
Every train leaves exactly on the hour.
The road formerly used the phrase: "Trains every hour on the hour",
and this seemed to be pretty good, but it was thought that something
better might be devised. A great deal of thought was given to the
subject, and as a result the phrase "Your Watch Is Your Time Table" was
devised. This phrase tells the whole story. It is no longer necessary
to bother with time-tables when one goes from New York to Philadelphia.
Just look at your watch. To visualize this idea, the phrase is used in
the advertising in connection with the pictures of a fast train and a
watch.
A celebrated advertising phrase was "You press the button; we do the
rest", formerly used by the Eastman Kodak Company. This sentence
achieved a tremendous popularity, but it had the fundamental defect of
not containing any word which would connect it closely with the Eastman
Company's product. There is hardly a doubt that it was heard and
used by a vast number of people who did not receive any Kodak-buying
suggestion from it.
A short, incisive phrase which does not possess this defect is
"O'Sullivanize Your Walk", used in the advertising of O'Sullivan's
Rubber Heels. When you have a pair of O'Sullivan's Heels put on your
shoes you do not merely invest in a comfort-giving device. It is a
bigger transaction than that. You begin to walk like a man who means
business--you have the erect and confident bearing of success--in
short, you "O'Sullivanize Your Walk".