Advertising during the Great Depression and through the 1930s was an industry cut off at the knees. All the fine talk of bringing art to advertising took second place to that rolled-up-sleeve practice that hit the jugular with a hard-sell message.
Some companies took advertising into their own hands, away from Mad Ave. This “Localized ACTION Advertising” booklet for the Morgan building materials company is an example of how one American marketing company took the bull by the horns with “Valuable, Sure-Fire, Sales-Winning Ideas” to make certain that thousands of millwork retailers across the nation increased “their sales to new high levels” through “sound, practical, money-making teamwork.” The Morgan Plan of “Action Advertising” promised to make job signs, flange, truck and tacker signs, big hit displays and special sales letter services sell the Morgan brand to all of its customers and vendors. “Puts the Mail Man on Your Sales Force at Only Two Pennies a Call.”
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