This book collects together pieces by significant figures in American advertising, including George L. Dyer, who at the time of his death left almost no other written record of his point of view. There is a substantial introduction by the editor, which interweaves the history of advertising with the history of the era of American industrial coming-of-age, touching not only on the impact of mass-production, but also the beginnings of corporate social responsibility.

This book provides a detailed explanation of the basic principles that underlie the writing of industrial advertising copy, written at a time of tremendous expansion in industrial advertising, in the early part of the twentieth century. This is a practical textbook of its time, covering facts which anyone writing advertising copy should know before attempting to reach industrial markets. It highlights key points in the planning and writing of industrial advertising copy, with the aim of simplifying the work of the copy-writer. Although inevitably a product of the time in which it was published, this volume nonetheless contains many valuable tenets of advertising which remain a core part of modern advertising theory.