ABSTRACT
One of our clients, representing very successful American manufacturers, thought the same theory would work out in China, and we felt so sure he was right that we undertook his blended cigarette advertising with a good deal tnore than the usual enthusi-
asm inspired by a new and potentially large advertising account. Nothing was overlooked in launching the venture. Salesmen got the brand stocked everywhere, and it was advertised by every approved method we or the manufacturers could think of: They were so certain of success that they were willing to let next year's business pay for this year's advertising, and they were generous in their anticipation of at future profits would be. Thanks to the assistance given by their New York advertising agency, one of the best in America, the campaign we put on in China was far better than anything that had ever been seen there before. But, in spite of all that we could do, the cigarettes remained on the dealers' shelves. Maybe the hypothesis that anyone who changed to a blended cigarette would smoke that kind ever after really would prove correct in China, if given a fair trial. But we were never able to prove it. So far as we could discover, we never succeeded in getting a single Chinese to become a smoker of our brand of blended cigarettes, and so couldn't tell whether or not he would become a regular consumer once h'e got used to them. Any number tried to smoke them, but, after a few puffs, they found the taste both strange and odious and would not buy a second packet. The Chinese sales fell back to the zero point from which they had started, and the advertising campaign was dropped by common consent of everyone who had anything to do with it. The only satisfaction we got out of the experience was that everyone praised the advertising.
