Paul Lessing: New Defender for Negative Advertising

May 18, 2010 in Advertising, Branding, Marketing, Paul Lessing
Tags: Bissel Carpet, Hartwell Mason, negative advertising, Ostermoor, Paul Lessing, Postum

Advertising men have had the didactic paradox “Don’t say don’t” dinned into their ears for so long that they have come to bow before it as to a fetich. Hartwell Mason in Agricultural Advertising has come forward with ingenious arguments to support his contention that we may use negative copy once in a while.

This writer holds that in the case where there is only an alternative, and not a choice among three or more courses of action, the negative appeal is just as strong as the positive. For instance modern man cannot get along without a mattress. Therefore the advertiser is justified in saying “Don’t be without the comfort of an Ostermoor,” because the reader has just two courses, either to use it or not to use it. In the case of Postum Cereal when Mr. Post says “Don’t drink coffee” the reader has choice of chocolate, cocoa and a great many other substitutes for coffee. By using the negative appeal he makes his task doubly hard. It would be better to strike straight from the shoulder. “Use Postum.”

Another case is that of the Bissell Carpet Sweeper. An advertisement bears the illustration of a fatigued woman with the caption “The Drudgery of Sweeping.” The weakness here lies in the fact that a woman can avoid the sweeping without buying a Bissell sweeper. She can hire the work done, can buy some other sweeper or she can get a vacuum cleaner.

The use of the negative appeal will probably never be entirely eliminated from advertising. There are occasions when it can be used to advantage but these occasions are rare and only an expert can recognize them. Even those propositions which can carry a negative appeal usually could be materially strengthened by a positive method of treatment.

So, after all, the question seems to be right back where it always was, use the positive appeal on every possible occasion and when you feel that you really must indulge in negative advertising then so state your proposition that the reader has only two courses of action. Compromise is fatal to the success of the negative appeal.

Author: Paul Lessing
Lessing Advertising Agency
Des Moines, Iowa
January, 1912

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