“The power of suasion”

I had a wonderful time in college, even with those occasional eight A.M. classes. I achieved a Journalism degree, along with Advertising emphases. The time spent in college enabled me to become a better critical thinker, and I believe, a better writer. It did not help me to become a better drinker, though I must admit to utilizing many college hours vainly trying-but I’ll get back to that in a little bit.

Advertising, is the art of convincing someone to buy a product, or to change their point of view. I learned much about that in college. In my library, I have some wonderful collectable books on Advertising. Let me promote several. First is “The Elementary Laws of Advertising, and How to Use Them” by Henry S. Bunting, 1913. It is signed by the author. The second book, also by Henry S. Bunting is “Specialty Advertising, The New Way to Build Business”. This was a third edition, published in 1925.

In researching some details of these books, and how challenging it is to now find them, I discovered that Bunting had written another book, “Added Lines in Modern Merchandising”. While it is unavailable in the regular used book outlets, there was a copy on Etsy. It was worth more to me than what he was wanting to sell it for, so I immediately ordered it. Now that I have been notified by the seller that it has been sent, I can comment on it (even though it has not yet arrived). To have these three books together, along with the information between the covers, is a big financial score. Advertising, along with library prominence, is about publicity.

I also have an interesting book “Outdoor Advertising, The Modern Marketing Force” by Outdoor Advertising Association of America published in 1928. It is a great book about early days of billboard and posters.

There is one blurry recollection… of outdoor publicity in college.

I borrowed my brother’s brother’s motorcycle for a week, and the first day back, I was with our Political Science gang of bikers from Douglas Hall dorm. While I was a Journalism major, I was entertaining a Political Science minor to be eligible for the Poli Sci dorm floor. I could have been with Rob, Tom, and Steve on bikes. Or not. This may never of happened. We were at the intersection of Annie Glidden and Lucinda, aiming to drive North to some parties. I was wearing a backpack with Rose’s lime juice, Triple Sec, vodka, a bag of ice, and a blender.

I had recently perfected the 4-3-2-1 (boom) method of making Kamikazes. Four ice cubes, three measures vodka, two measures lime juice, and one measure of Triple Sec, blended on ‘Frappe’. We had tried a few, and after agreeing the recipe was perfect, made our way to some parties. The plan was to enter, ask for an outlet to plug in the blender, make some Kamikazes to pass around, and then go on to additional parties.

But first, at that intersection of Annie Glidden and Lucinda, I revved up my bike and looked around at my fellow Poli-Sci squad. Planning to beat everyone at the light, I kept revving the motor as I smiled at everyone else. The light turned green and I slammed my wrist forward. Up went my front tire, as I quickly pulled forward on Annie Glidden with an unintentional wheelie.

In fear, I started climbing up the handle bar of the motorcycle. I didn’t want to flip over. After a couple of hundred feet with that wheelie, my brain said “let up on the throttle.” I did. However, since I had climbed high up on the handlebar, when I came back down onto two wheels, I was now hanging over that handlebar, and was staring at the headlight. It took all of my strength to pull back to an upright sitting position, without swerving, or crashing.

Finally in control, I came to a stop and took a deep breath, realizing I had just cheated death. Then looking around for my friends, with an “I meant to do that” look pasted on my face, I noticed that they all had not even left the intersection, just watching and laughing. Slowly they drove together up to me. Between their many giggles, and a few outright guffaws, I interrupted them with a calm yet urgent statement, “I need a drink please.”

We then crashed our first party, that of a friend, Karnak. Other than great applause as to the quality of Kamikazes, the rest of the night was uneventful. Except perhaps, after the bottles were empty, the parties all visited, and driving back home to Lincolnshire Apartments from East Hillshire road. A policeman did stop and remind me to merely slow down, after I assured him with, another pasted-on face (one rather angelic), that I indeed was going straight home.

According to the dictionary: Suasion is the deployment of rhetorical means for the sake of moving the audience to the rhetor’s position. Persuasion is the effect or result of successful suasion on that audience.

According to Henry S. Bunting, in his Advertising books, “To persuade (persuasion) is to influence the mind through pressure of argument or pressures of any other kind; and suation is the act, or process, of doing so.”

I may not always be able to get results, but I am always trying. (Su, su, suation.) Thanks for reading.