Lessons

Having perused the 928-page "Golden Jubilee" Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog lately mailed to 6,500,000 customers, Printers' Ink last week marked three lessons for the average advertiser:

1) Though the occasion was its Soth anniversary, Sears devoted less than one-tenth of 1% of the catalog to talking about itself, "which might be a good proportion to keep in mind."

2) Though it is necessary to describe mail-order merchandise in great detail, Sears provides "more information than is ordinarily available in the personal transaction."

3) "Nowhere in the volume is merchandise represented as a means to such ends as these:

Getting a husband.

Holding a husband.

Saving the home from wreckage.

Soothing the nerves.

Getting a date for the Junior Prom.

Curing a disease of the 'housewife's knuckles' type.

Overcoming social inferiority.

Eliminating sleepless nights.

Preventing the baby from having to have dental plates at age 7.

Stimulating an emotional jag.

"Yet somehow Sears seems to struggle along and sell a few items every year."

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