Caleb Bull Jr.

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 19

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Connecticut Courant (May 19, 1772).

“New, New, New GOODS!”

Less is more.  Caleb Bull, Jr., adopted that theory for his advertisement in the May 19, 1772, edition of the Connecticut Courant.  Extending only four lines, the advertisement proclaimed, “New, New, New GOODS! AT CALEB BULL jun’s. Store in HARTFORD.”  He did not include any of the standard appeals to price or quality.  He did not attempt to convince genteel customers that he carried fashionable textiles, garments, and housewares.  He did not provide a list of dozens or scores of items to demonstrate the choices available to consumers.  He did not promise exemplary customer service.  In short, he did not deploy most of the marketing strategies that commonly appeared in newspaper advertisements in the eighteenth century.

That does not necessarily mean, however, that Bull’s advertisements did not catch the attention of prospective customers.  After all, he composed innovative copy with the repetition of “New, New, New” on the first line.  Most advertisers did not incorporate such repetition as a means of engaging readers, though sometimes their lists of merchandise concluded with “&c. &c. &c.”  In repeating the abbreviation for et cetera, they underscored that they had far too many goods to fit into an advertisement.  Bull relied on a similar principle, but he did not reserve the repetition for the end of his notice.  Instead, “New, New, New” served as his primary marketing strategy, signaling to prospective customers that his inventory had not lingered on the shelves.  Bull challenged readers to visit his store to see these “New, New, New GOODS” for themselves.

The typography made his advertisement notable, most of the content in larger fonts than appeared in other advertisements on the same page.  Other notices featured dense paragraphs in smaller fonts.  Readers likely absorbed Bull’s advertisement at a glance, even if they casually skimmed the advertisements, but other notices required greater effort to read.  As a result, “New New, New GOODS” may have been enough to make Bull’s advertisement memorable and effective,