PROBABLY the world's most famous brothers are "Trade" and "Mark" Smith! Since 1852 when the first advertisement for a "Cough Candy" appeared in
Ten years or so ago, practically an entire 40-page edition of the Poughkeepsie-New Yorker was devoted to the 100th Birthday Celebration of this famous industry which had produced enough cough drops up to that time to ease the roughened throats of all the people in the world!
Five generations of Smith Brothers have carried on this fantastically successful business which contains all the ingredients of the American dream ... log cabin beginnings, first product made over kitchen stove, sold from door to door, and then the slow ascent to great wealth and world influence. Just pull out the stops and bear down on the keys!
And if you could ask either "Trade" or "Mark" or any of their fortunate descendants what one thing - beyond the product - was the big booster along the upward road, the voice that answered would undoubtedly say: "Continuous advertising, small space, plenty of insertions, simple copy.'. . "
Maybe you won't call the pictures of "Trade" and "Mark" that I've reproduced here either "great" or "famous" advertisements. You're right - technically; but I imagine more people know these gentlemen and what they make, than know the reasons why the product's good for them .. .
Even today's Smith Brothers advertising says, "Don't Let Those Beards Fool You!" And then it goes on with "Modern Science Recognizes The Effectiveness o f This Trusted Formula. .." Trying to modernize "Trade" and "Mark" are they? Is nothing sacred?
