Quotes from Walter E. Weld, 1918

Whatever you promise the public in your advertising, or whatever you lead the public to expect, even though not explicitly stated, is what the public gets sore about if it isn't delivered, and the explosion of a grouch is heard much farther than the gentle hum of satisfaction. It's better by far to deliver more than you promise than to promise more than you can deliver.

Let the public discover that 5 per cent of your advertising is exaggeration, and it immediately suspects the other 95 per cent.

Many merchants who try to write their own advertising make a fizzle of it because they are too close to their own business to see it in the proper perspective. They look at it from their own standpoint rather than from the standpoint of the public.

Better by far spend two whole days on a quarter page ad, and have it right, than fill a whole page full of bombastic piffle and senseless inanities...

And that is the whole secret of successful advertising. A good store, selling good goods at right prices, is the foundation... No advertising should be better than the store behind it.

It's better by far to deliver more than you promise than to promise more than you can deliver.