We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
ARE SALESLINES 43
a pictured character to dramatize sales appeal. A provocative quotation from attraction dialogue may serve as a hook for reader interest. Easy-to-read dialogue or conversational copy delivers a feeling of friendly familiarity as it presents the advertiser’s message. ‘The first and most arresting line of dialogue may be accented in the headline, continued in the text.
The headline may be suggested by the illustration. Or headline and copy might be created first, then interpreted in drawing or photograph. There usually will be a relationship between text and pictorial elements. Graphic illustration such as ¢humbnail sketches lessen need for copy elaboration. If an advertisement is without illustration, then the headlines carry even greater responsibility.
Commands, imperative headlines of a positive tone (do not don’t) impart valuable suggestion if adroitly handled, urging immediate action. The reader may be influenced through a natural impulse to respond. But commands must not be offensive or arouse a feeling of resentment. In gentlest form they are suggestive, persuasive. Commands should be weighed for possible negative reaction.
Question-mark headlines also arrest attention. Questions are thoughtprovoking. But don’t ask questions unless:
1. The reader’s reaction is sure to be friendly.
2. The obvious answer to the question is definitely favorable, usually “yes.”
3. ‘The question is answered at once in the text that follows the headline.
4. The question is intended to arouse curiosity, with a later followthrough.
5. It is plain that no answer can be expected.
Provocative headlines are designed to arouse curiosity and stimulate the imagination, leading the eye into sales text. News-style headlines win interest in similar fashion. But copy ought to substantiate implied headline promises. Blind headlines, designed to shock the reader into attention and following with unrelated copy may arouse a feeling of resentment and must be carefully considered. Trick headlines as ‘‘Theatre Manager Found Dead .. . right in booking such-and-such” may annoy the reader—or even disappoint him! Curiosity is an excellent headline ingredient but not deception or betrayal of interest.
Strive to cultivate a smoothness of expression in constructing headlines. Try to avoid awkward phrasing. A cadence or a rhythmic swing to sentences may make a message more acceptable. Catchy headlines employing alliteration, simile or metaphor, jingles, rhyme or rhythm, if appropriate or natural, may