Value of Advertising

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 34, 6 September 1892, Page 3

Value of Advertising

' Sweet are the uses of—advertisements,' i.e., if you happen to be a 1 literary lady with a trained mind,' like Mrs Cahill. This dame (says the London correspondent of the Dunedin Star) noticed in the papers last February a iiighly-ingenions and attractive announcement. It was issued by the Carbolic Smoke Ball Company, and stated with much circumstance, that the directors guaranteed the sum of LIOO (one hundred pounds sterling) to any person who could prove having- cau-ht tho influenza after using diligen'Jy, for a fortnight or more, their invaluable specific. Mrs Cahill bought one of the smoke balls, which, as I dare-say you know, act like magic on colds in the head. Sniffling- thereat regularly did not, however, ward «ff the epidemic Mrs Cahill feared. The influenza presently seized her, and ran its course. On her recovery the lady bethought herself of the LIOO, and wrote to the fcrooke Ball Company, for a cheque. Strange to say, the Company demurred to poy up, and talked about 'catch-peony advertisements ' and ' palpable jokes ' Here Mrs Cahill's ' trained mind' came in. She declined to see the joke, and called on a lawyer Ultimately the cisc came before Mr Justice Hawkins The judge's sense of humour also proved sadly defective. He called the advertisement a contract, and decided that the Smoke Ball Company must pay up. The Ccs B.C. have resolved in desperation to appeal. It is a serious matter for them as some 200 other sufferers from combined smoke ball and influenza have likewise entered claims. l'o give in to one is to give in to all.