Hard-Sell “Killers” and Soft-Sell “Poets”

Abstract

This historical study of the U.S. advertising trade literature represents the first attempt to interpret the enduring debate between advocates of hard-and soft-sell advertising. Primary sources consisted of works published mainly in the historically important trade journal Printers' Ink, supplemented with contemporary professional thought identified in advertising and marketing trade journals. The findings of the study are consistent with what many might recognise as the "received view" of modern advertising. However, they also help establish how and why the terms of this debate remained relatively stable over the course of the previous century, despite the fact that definitions of advertising effectiveness and appropriate strategy continually grew more complex and sophisticated.