Appeal in Headline

March 22

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Connecticut Courant (March 22, 1774).

“Good GOODS!”

Caleb Bull, Jr., had experience deploying crafty headlines to draw attention to his advertisements in the Connecticut Courant.  In the spring of 1772, he ran an advertisement that consisted almost entirely of the headline: “New, New, New GOODS! AT CALEB BULL jun’s. Store in HARTFORD.”  He inserted an advertisement with a similar headline in the March 22, 1774, edition of the Connecticut Courant.  “Good GOODS!” it proclaimed.

Some of the headlines for notices that recently appeared in that newspaper may have inspired Bull to devise something playful and out of the ordinary for his own advertisement.  At the beginning of the month, William Beadle alluded to the Boston Tea Party when he offered “Best Bohea TEA, Such as Fishes never drink!!”  Matthew Talcott’s notice declared, “Make Way! A Probationer for New Gate!” in the previous issue.  That issue also carried William Prentice’s advertisement for “Cheap GOODS.”  That headline did not merely announce that Prentice sold goods; it also made an appeal to price.  For eighteenth-century readers, “cheap” meant inexpensive rather than inferior quality.

The following week, Bull placed his own advertisement for “Good GOODS!”  It served as a counterpoint to Prentice’s “Cheap GOODS” advertisement that ran once again.  In this instance, the headline did indeed market the quality of the items offered for sale.  The shopkeeper also made an appeal to price, assuring prospective customers that they would pay “a moderate Adva[n]ce from the COST.”  In other words, Bull marked up his merchandise only slightly.  He sacrificed larger profits in favor of presenting consumers with bargains, a means of competing with the “Cheap GOODS” available at another store in Hartford.

With experience publishing innovative headlines for his advertisements, Bull may have perused recent issues of the Connecticut Courant, noticed similarly provocative headlines, and determined that the time was right to make his own intervention in the public prints.  If that was the case, he monitored advertisements in the local newspaper for style as well as substance, then composed copy accordingly.

May 27

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Supplement to the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (May 27, 1773).

“Goods very Cheap.”

As May 1773 came to an end, Samuel Eliot and Thomas Walley continued publishing advertisements that included colorful commentary about their low prices.  In the supplement that accompanied the May 27 edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter, Eliot once again asserted that “Those who are acquainted with his Prices, will not need to be told that he sells at low Rates; those who are not, who will please to call on him, shall be satisfied he makes no idle Profession, when he engages to sell his Goods on the most similar terms.”  Elsewhere in the supplement, Walley expressed his exasperation with the elaborate stories that some of his competitors printed about how they “sell cheaper than cheap and lower than anybody else.”  Rather than publish tales with “little meaning,” he “rather chuses to inform his good Customers and others that he will sell at such Prices, as that both the Seller and Buyer may make a Profit.”

In contrast, Gilbert Deblois took a streamlined approach to promote the low prices he charged for a “large and beautiful Assortment” of textiles, accessories, housewares, tea, and a “great Variety of other Articles, too tedious to mention in an Advertisement.”  He deployed a headline that summarized his prices: “Good very cheap.”  He also inserted a nota bene to advise that “Country Traders may be supplied at as low Advance as can be bought at any Store in Town,” reinforcing the message in the headline.  In the standard issue, Herman Brimmer and Andrew Brimmer published an advertisement with a primary headline, “Variety of GOODS,” and a secondary headline, “Exceeding Cheap.”  The Brimmers listed dozens of items from among the “Assortment of English, India and Scotch GOODS” they recently imported, but they did not make additional remarks about the low prices of those items.  They relied on the secondary headline to market their prices.

Deblois and the Brimmers adopted a different approach than Eliot and Walley in their efforts to alert prospective customers to their low prices.  The former chose brevity, allowing short headlines to frame the remainder of their advertisements, while the latter offered narratives intended to engage and perhaps even entertain readers.  In both instances, the advertisers made price a defining factor in their newspaper notices.  They did not merely announce that they had goods for sale.  They presented a reason for consumers to select their shops over others.

November 10

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Essex Gazette (November 10, 1772).

“GOODS cheaper than the cheapest.”

William Vans ran a “Variety-Shop” in Salem in the early 1770s.  To incite interest in his wares, he regularly advertised in the Essex Gazette.  He often mentioned his low prices, comparing them to what consumers could expect to pay for the same merchandise in other shops.  For instance, in May 1771 he proclaimed that he sold his wares “as cheap as any Store in Town.”  Eighteen months later, he enhanced a similar appeal to price with a headline that made his marketing pitch.  “GOODS cheaper than the cheapest” appeared at the top of his advertisement in the November 10, 1772, edition of the Essex Gazette.  Vans intended the meaning of “cheap” as understood in the eighteenth century, promoting inexpensive wares without suggesting that low prices indicated inferior quality.  In the introduction to his extensive inventory, Vans declared that he set prices “as cheap or cheaper … than at any Shop in the County,” deciding to give his assertion more weight by expanding it beyond “any Store in Town.”

That Vans devised a headline with a marketing message distinguished his advertisement from others in the same issue.  William Scott advertised the “Essence of Pearl, and Pearl Dentifrice,” the toothpaste created by Jacob Hemet, “DENTIST to her Majesty, the Princess Amelia,” that he sold at his shop.  A headline that advised the product was “For the TEETH and GUMS” appeared at the beginning of the advertisement, but it did not make an explicit marketing appeal like Vans’s headline.  Most merchants and shopkeepers used their names, printed in larger font, as headlines.  Such was the case for John Appleton, “John & Andw. Cabot,” George Deblois, John Dyson, Samuel Flagg, Stephen Higginson, John Prince, and others.  Van’s name received similar treatment, but below the “GOODS cheaper than the cheapest” headline.  Some of those merchants and shopkeepers did make appeals to price in the introductions that came before their lists of merchandise.  Deblois, for instance, declared that “he will sell as cheap as is sold in any Shop or Store in Town, and as low as is sold in Boston, or elsewhere.”  John Appleton stated that “he is determined to sell at such very low Rates … as cannot fail to give full Satisfaction to every reasonable Purchaser.”  Those advertisers made appeals to price, but prospective customers encountered them only after wading into those notices.  Consumers did not have to read the smaller print in Vans’s advertisement to know that he claimed to sell “GOODS cheaper than the cheapest.”  In this instance, the format certainly enhanced the message.