¹ Although not directing his main attention to the idea of human nature, Otis Pease, in The Responsibilities of American Advertising: Private Control and Public Influence, 1920–1940 (New Haven, 1958)Google Scholar, reports continuities and changes in advertising appeals in the 1930's by examining ads in selected issues of Woman's Home Companion and Saturday Evening Post. Such a direct analysis of themes by content and technique in actual ads is a promising way of investigating changing ideas about human nature.

² Advertising and Selling, an important trade journal, seemed less suitable for study since it merged with several other advertising periodicals and since occasional breaks in publication occurred.

³ Rowell's formal education was limited to study at the Lancaster Academy in New Hampshire where he probably was introduced to a watered-down version of the Scottish common sense or realistic philosophy which dominated mid-nineteenth century textbooks on mental science. For a biographical portrait see Dictionary of American Biography, XVI, 197–98.Google Scholar From 1909 to his death in 1948, Richard Wesley Lawrence was a dominant figure in the Printers' Ink Company. A second-generation Irish-American and a graduate of New York Law School, Lawrence was prominent in the business community and in the civic affairs of New York City. See National Encyclopedia of American Biography, XXXVII, 196–97.

⁴ I am indebted to Sharon Smith MacPherson and to Dr. George P. Rawick who, as my research assistants, did a good deal of the spade work for this article. Initially, Mrs. MacPherson studied one volume for every fifth year; as a check on subjective judgment, Dr. Rawick studied alternate volumes; and as a further check, I made spot-checks of the volumes that had already been examined.

⁵ The first explicit definition of “human nature” I have found in the professional literature of advertising is that of Daniel Starch, a psychologist: “Human nature is composed fundamentally of a large number of inherent wants accompanied by capacities or abilities to carry out the necessary behavior to satisfy these wants.” Principles of Advertising (New York, 1923), 255.Google Scholar Also exceptional, even among professional psychologists who used the term, in defining it were Arthur Brewster, J. and Palmer, Herbert Hall, Introduction to Advertising (New York, 1931), 93Google Scholar: “The instincts, emotions, desires, needs, impulses, interests, and habits of people are many times referred to in popular speech as ‘human nature’.”

⁶ Printers' Ink, XII (October 2, 1895), 2, XXIX (October 11, 1899), 28. Unless otherwise indicated, citations are to Printers' Ink.Google Scholar

⁷ Bowers, Arthur, “Advertisements and Solicitors,” V (November 25, 1891), 620.Google Scholar

⁸ Fowler, N. C., “Bargains in Advertising,” II (January 8, 1890), 235Google Scholar; Editorial Comment, XLV (December 2, 1908), 27; Editorial Comment, XI (July 2, 1902), 25; LXII (January 29, 1908); LXX (January 19, 1910), 73.

⁹ Beton, Joel “The Persuasive Art” XL (July 16, 1902), 12.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Webster, Benjamin, “The Line of Least Resistance,” V (September 30, 1891), 323Google Scholar; “What Is It?”, XL (July 23, 1902), 12.Google Scholar Artemas Ward, a leading expert, claimed that “advertising seems to be the starting of a thought wave which furnishes the mass of people with a new idea,” XL (July 23, 1902), 12.Google Scholar

¹¹ “The Public's Skepticism,” XIII (December 18, 1895), 33.Google Scholar

¹² “Comic Advertisements,” II (January 5, 1890), 264.Google Scholar

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¹⁵ Jones, Charles F., “Store Management,” XXIII (June 22, 1898), 14.Google Scholar

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¹⁷ Ward was apparently one of the most successful advertising experts of the late nineteenth century. He was advertising manager of the Sapolio Soap Company, known as one of the most advanced advertisers; eventually he started his own advertising agency in New York. During 1891 he wrote a weekly column for Printers' Ink.

¹⁸ Ward, Artemas, “Stray Shots,” IV (April 29, 1891), 571.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Only one dissenting opinion was discovered. An article quoted from the New York Sun in the spring of 1900 stated that people have no idea of what they want and that therefore the advertiser is obliged to convince people that they really want just what is offered. XXX (March 21, 1900), 48.

²⁰ Hopkins, Claude C., “Sensational Advertising,” XIII (October 30, 1895), 548Google Scholar; Romer, John Irving, “Do Deceptive Advertisements Pay?", I (June 1, 1889), 578.Google Scholar

²¹ Editorial Comment, II (June 11, 1890), 924.

²² G.T.C, , “Financial Institutions,” XII (June 19, 1895), 6–7.Google Scholar

²³ Graham, Wilder, “The End of It All,” V (December 9, 1891), 696.Google Scholar

²⁴ Curti, Merle, “Human Nature in American Thought,” Political Science Quarterly, LXVIII (September 1953), 354–75 and (December 1953), 492–518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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²⁶ Editorial Comment, XXIX (October 18, 1899), 28.

²⁷ Howard, Joseph Jr., “The Secret of Success,” V (September 23, 1891), 291–92.Google Scholar

²⁸ Printers' Ink, II (March 20, 1890), 532; III (October 15, 1890), 375; IV (May 13, 1891), 634.Google Scholar

²⁹ Herzerg, Oscar, “Human Nature as a Factor in Advertising,” XIII (October 2, 1895), 3.Google Scholar

³⁰ Printers' Ink, III (July 2, 1890), 16.Google Scholar

³¹ Ward, Artemas, “Stray Shots,” IV (April 1, 1891), 442.Google Scholar

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³⁷ Editorial, XLV (December 9, 1903).

³⁸ Editorial, XLV (December 9, 1903), 34. For the disapproval of Scott's professional colleagues for venturing into this field, see Baritz, Loren, The Servants of Power: A History of the Use of Social Science in American Industry (Middletown, Connecticut, 1960), 27–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³⁹ See, for example, the piece “Advertising Past and Present,” reprinted from American Advertising Reporter in Printers' Ink, II (January 22, 1890), 291.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ For example, Editorial Comment, XXIX (November 22, 1899), 35.

⁴¹ Disapproval was expressed of the use of vulgarity as offensive to women, XL (August 13, 1902), 29. A leading authority in advertising, A. D. Lasker, once remarked that of the three major things that ever happened in the advertising field one was the introduction of sex by the J. Walter Thompson Company: “the skin you love to touch,” Young, James Webb, Diary of an Advertising Man (Chicago, 1944), 101.Google Scholar

⁴² Rogers, Peet and Co.'s Advertising Manager, II (February 5, 1890), 344. See also Wall, Louis H., “The Advertiser's Best Ally,” V (December 23, 1891), 765.Google Scholar

⁴³ Printers' Ink, XX (September 22, 1897), 39; XL (September 3, 1902), 2 and (August 13, 1902), 35.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Editorial Comment, XL (August 27, 1902), 29; “The German Press,” II (May 7, 1890), 725.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Graham, Jno. C., “School Advertising,” XXIII (May 25, 1898), 4.Google Scholar

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⁴⁷ Benton, Joel, “The King's Preference,” XII (June 19, 1895), 8.Google Scholar

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⁵¹ “Analyzing the New Competition,” CXL (July 28, 1927), 182.Google ScholarClark, John Bates, in “Economics and Modern Psychology” (Journal of Political Economy, vol. XXVI [1918], 1–30 and 136–66)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, held that the new ideas regarding the complex and instinctual nature of man forced a revision of many basic economic doctrines, especially those concerned with the psychology of the consumer. Clark recognized that the consumer did not necessarily choose those goods which would most benefit him. Thus, support from a leading academic economist, based on his understanding of new currents in psychology, reinforced the emphasis in advertising on shaping consumer's wants.

⁵² Collins, James H., “Human Nature in Advertising,” LXX (March 30, 1910), 35.Google Scholar

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⁵⁴ Editorial Comment, XC (February 8, 1915), 94–97.

⁵⁵ Collins, James H., “Advertising and the Sales Plan,” LXX (January 19, 1910), 3.Google Scholar

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⁵⁸ See advertisement of the Ethridge Association of Artists, C (September 13, 1917), 15.

⁵⁹ See advertisement of the Niagara Lithograph Company, C (September 6, 1917), 115.

⁶⁰ “A Curious Place Is Adland,” XC (January 28, 1915), 89.Google Scholar

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⁶³ Editorial Comment, XC (January 7, 1925), 64.

⁶⁴ The first experimental work used in business is associated with Professor Walter Dill Scott's studies of 1903–1905 and with those of Professor Hollingworth in 1910. For a brief summary, see Frederick, J. George, Introduction to Motivation Research (New York, 1957), 30 ft., 75 ff.Google Scholar For comments on the early work of the psychologists, see “The Psychology of Advertising Discussed,” LXX (February 9, 1910), 66Google Scholar; “Dr. Hollingworth on Advertising Psychology,” LXX (March 9, 1910), 46Google Scholar; “Noted Speakers at the Annual Dinner of Poor Richard Club,” XC (January 21, 1915), 86, 91.Google Scholar

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⁷² Link, Henry C., The New Psychology of Selling and Advertising (New York, 1934), 80 ff.Google Scholar The foreword was written by John B. Watson, the chief proponent of “behaviorism.” Watson left his professorship at Johns Hopkins for a highly paid position with the J. Walter Thompson Company, a leading advertising firm.

⁷³ “Developing Exact Knowledge About Advertising,” LXXII (August 25, 1910), 70.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Printers' Ink, LXXII (August 25, 1910), 36Google Scholar; ibid. (August 5, 1910), 18.

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⁹² Pease, Otis, The Responsibility of American Advertising, 186–88Google Scholar; Hower, Ralph M., The History of an Advertising Agency (Cambridge, Mass., 1949), 147–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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¹⁰⁰ Martineau, Pierre, “New Look at Old Symbols,” CCXLVII (June 4, 1954), 33Google Scholar; Spitzer, Leo, “A Method of Interpreting Literature” (Smith College, 1949), 102 ff.Google Scholar

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