Points.
1. Power to attract attention 40
2. Power to hold attention 20
3. Prominence of the article advertised 20
4. Brevity of necessary information 10
5. Composition 10
And now, how do we stand in comparison with other nations in this
matter of effective advertising? It is universally admitted that
advertisement is the soul of business. How, then, does the business man
of this country compare with the business man of America. Some of our
great advertising firms certainly display no very marked inferiority,
but as a rule it is unfortunately true that to glance through the
announcements in an American magazine is to be brought face to face
with the enormously superior ability in design of the American over
the Englishman. Here you have, as it were, your finger on the pulse
of a country's commerce; you can feel the vigorous beats, or the
languid and anæmic current. And the main reason is just this: that the
American never loses sight of the fact that the first three essentials
in attracting and keeping attention are novelty, novelty, novelty.
Their skill in attracting attention in new ways is always a matter of
admiration.
[Illustration: ELEVENTH.