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18 SHOWMEN'STRADEREVIEW
The ADVERTISING CLINIC
July 4, 1942 by Old Doc Layout*
Cartoon Figures for Punchy Ad Lines; How to Use Current Idea for Seat-Selling Dialogue
At left is complete illustration, including the dialogue for "blurps" used in the new-style cartoon character advertising. Other layouts by Old Doc are shown minus the dialogue as a means of illustrating how effective bits of copy or character exclamations can be used in connection with any type of attraction.
To get an idea of how the "asides" fits into the situation when you use the cartoon character, take any one of these layouts and set down the title of some attraction. The type of appeal of the patricular picture immediately suggests the brief dialogue or exclamation you would use to point up the advertisement. Example: for layout at immediate right, if picture stars Lana Turner, the words "Ooh! Lana's Here."
It is some time since Oscar Doob initiated a form of newspaper style which used cartoon figures to dress up the displays and also serve as illustration for short, punchy selling lines. The displays have proved themselves excellent ticket-sellers for the Loew's Theatres in the New York Metropolitan area. Many theatremen have become interested in this type of newspaper selling, and so Old Doc Layout gives you a few displays employing the cartoon character idea in simplified form.
Frequently a short line of dialogue or a simple exclamation if illustrated by a cartoon figure punches its way home to a reader even more effectively than if the same line were displayed in large type. In such cases, the cartoon idea is an especially effective medium to which the theatreman can resort.
Animation Enlivens Displays
We show you ads for both one and two-column measure, and think you will agree that the animation introduced by the figures of boys and girls or men of different types puts the zing of life into the advertisement.
Characters such as are illustrated are effective for a thrill (horror, murder mystery, etc.), a western adventure type of story, a comedy, musical or romantic drama. For the more impressive type of spectacle or serious play, the cartoon may not appeal as a good selling device. Nevertheless if the work is carefully and cleverly done, you can make a figure of this type do almost anything — not perhaps as much with such versatility as some of the great "trade mark" figures— such as Howard Dietz's "Leo the Lion" — but effectively just the same.
Another thing to note is that white space set off to the side of a panel, even without a cartoon figure, can be effective if lines of dialogue or any brief copy is introduced between rules, which break into a panel— such as you will notice in the lower right of the 1-col. layout at left above.
*'Hank' Harold