Coalition

In the advertising business it was a big event when last week the firm of Lord & Thomas (Chicago, Manhattan, Los Angeles, San Francisco and London) merged with that of Thomas F. Logan Inc. (Manhattan) to form the firm of Lord & Thomas and Logan. It was a wedding of one of the oldest members of the Fifth Estate with one of the youngest; of the popularizer of many famed household commodities with the interpreter of many huge public service and transportation corporations. It was the formation of one of the largest advertising concerns in the world* and the coalition of two perfect representatives of human types for which this part of the 20th Century is "destined to be celebrated.

The omnipotent buying public carries in its mind only a dim conception of the part played in its daily life by this enormous new pseudoscience, advertising. How did that tube of Pepsodent toothpaste, for instance, reach your bathroom shelf? Somewhat as follows:

Lord & Thomas learned that Mr. Douglas Smith of Chicago, having made one fortune out of patent medicines, was about to outdo himself with a new toothpaste. Lord & Thomas straightway learned all that there was to know in fact and theory, about the gritty white ooze that Mr. Smith's chemists had carefully concocted, and all that there was to know about the toothpaste market--the best distribution areas, geographic and economic. Then Lord & Thomas prepared messages to the public about Mr. Smith's toothpaste and laid before Mr. Smith a program as to where these messages should be made public, how often, at what cost. This service of Lord & Thomas differed from the service rendered Mr. Smith by his sales managers in that it kept strictly in the realm of ideas. For this ideational service Mr. Smith was glad to pay Lord & Thomas 15% more than Lord & Thomas had to pay the newspapers and magazines that published the advertisements, and the latter were not grieved to see Lord & Thomas pocketing the 15%--which would have been in their publishing treasuries had Mr. Smith written and placed his messages unassisted-- because in the long run Lord & Thomas would probably egg Mr. Smith on to do more advertising than he would have done uncounseled, and because the expertly couched Lord & Thomas messages would prove more satisfactory, would expand Mr. Smith's business faster and make both possible and necessary more messages than if Mr. Smith and his sales manager had given up their golf, taken pen in hand and scratched their heads for a month on end.

But the question remains--how came that tube of Pepsodent, and not another tube, to your bathroom shelf? It got there, obviously, because somehow Lord & Thomas had at least made you suspect that of all toothpastes Pepsodent is the one most imperative to your health and happiness. You may not remember but somewhere you read that you had a film on your teeth and that gritty Pepsodent was the thing which would polish that film away.

That film-on-teeth suggestion that Lord & Thomas somehow conveyed to you is one example of so-called "reason why" copy. A "reason why" advanced for the makers of Dr. Forhan's toothpaste is that four out of five unfortunates develop a dread gum-disease through failure to use this preventive.

The Lord & Thomas man, Claude Hopkins* who is said to have discovered that a scientific demonstration is more convincing than a string of superlatives, has since enjoyed a tremendous salary and much honor among his professional brethren.

Of course Claude Hopkins, when he made his lucrative psychological discovery, had to "put it across" to manufacturers having things to advertise. That was where the head of the Lord & Thomas firm came in. Persuading manufacturers that of all advertising agencies Lord & Thomas was the only one for them was the colossal task of Albert D. Lasker, president. To know how he went about that task, and thus to comprehend how Lord & Thomas got in a position to inject all sorts of things into your life--Palmolive soap, Quaker Oats, Lucky Strike cigarets, Kotex,* among other things--you need a picture of the ruddy-faced German-Jew who, as a rich man's 15-year-old son in Galveston, Tex., writhed at the thought of being known as "old Lasker's son Al"; who got a job writing dramatic criticism for a Galveston newspaper, then cut loose for Chicago to be office boy in an advertising agency at 18; who in four years owned that agency and was making $1,000 weekly, writing "messages" and bringing in new accounts; who at 41 was a multi-millionaire and, having got into politics through the good offices of Will H. Hays and Bernard M. Baruch, was entrusted with 1,442 steel Government ships as chairman of the U. S. Shipping Board. Every thing he laid his hands on (except those ships) turned into money. He has a dynamo of a mind and bovine physical endurance to turn loose upon anything-- from a luke warm bean factory to an all-night bridge game-- and the current he generates is seldom grounded. Small wonder that lately he has been able to let Lord & Thomas carry on largely under its own momentum, with a buzz from him; small wonder that, still well short of 50, he can sit back as chairman of the board in the big new merger and let Thomas F. Logan be the active president.

Thomas F. Logan is just the opposite of the aggressive, hammering, obviously successful Lasker. He is slimmer, fairer, quieter --not smoother, for dynamos of the Lasker type are well-oiled--but gentler, more subtly persuasive. His training was that of a journalist-economist, after a genteel boyhood and Jesuit education in Philadelphia. He was a Washington correspondent and there learned the ins and outs of politics, which stood him in good stead when, in 1919, he started an advertising company in Manhattan with no accounts at all. His first act was to undertake, for the Association of Railroad Executives, an "educational campaign" to lead the public back to the idea that private owners and not the Government were best fitted to operate the country's railways. The public was an apt pupil. The New York Central Railway was so pleased to get its business back into its own hands that it engaged Mr. Logan to continue the good work, to write its advertising. The General Electric Co., the Anaconda Copper Co., the International Mercantile Marine, the Radio Corp. of America, and many another vast concern speedily sought Mr. Logan's services. He became known as a wizard at "institutional" advertising. The effects of his work are felt quite as intimately by the individual consumer--in a comfortable, punctual train; a well appointed ship; a sound security. But the distinction between the Messrs. Lasker and Logan, in what they do and how they do it, is as marked as their conjunction is notable.

*The four largest agencies are popularly supposed to be J. Walter Thompson Co. (which handles such advertising as Aunt Jemima Pancake Flour, Cream of Wheat, Fleischmann's Yeast, O'Sullivan's Heels, Ed. Pinaud, Royal Baking Powder, Sun-Maid Raisins, Swift & Co., Sloan's Liniment, Welch's Grape Juice) ; N. W. Ayer & Son (which handles such accounts as American Telephone and Telegraph, Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Hire's Root Beer, International Silver Co., National Cash Register, Reynolds Tobacco, Squibb, Steinway Pianos, Victor Talking Machines) ; F. Wallis Armstrong Co. (which has Campbell's soup, Fels-Naphtha soap, Whitman's candies) ; George Batten Co. (which has Cliquot Club Ginger Ale, Colgate & Co., Hamilton Watch, Hammermill Paper, Iver Johnson, McCallum hosiery).

*Now with the Kling-Gibson Co.

*The national advertising of this popular brand of a universal necessity and comfort to women, is said to have an interesting history. The editor of a large women's magazine long maintained that it would not be delicate to publish the advertisements. Finally, after one of many conferences, the promoter of Kotex asked the editor for permission to speak with his female secretary, in his presence. The surprised editor acceded and after a few minutes of frank sensible talk, during which the secretary appeared in no wise offended but on the contrary pleased, enthusiastic, the advertising was accepted for publication.