ABSTRACT
Copy, in one form or other, is the heart and soul of advertising. Except as an aid to the preparation of copy, or to the extension of copy after it has been prepared, everything else is more or less meaningless. As every advertising agency man knows, copy, in an astonishing number of cases, is written more or less to fit a preconceived layout. The only difference between the group of self-seeking advertisers and the ordinary public reading the same magazine is that they are looking for something, while the public is looking for nothing. But, passively, each person who looks through the advertising pages is just as self-centered—just as keen for his own interests—as any of those advertisers. Thus, men without the slightest real training in theory or practise of writing copy, men wise enough to heed explicit direction from their lawyers and expert accountants, will, with calmest assurance dictate to experts just how an advertisement must read and look.
