All About Coffee Part 84

is attractive, appropriate, and exceedingly pleasant to the eye. And since at that time there was no cereal subst.i.tute or other bugaboos to contend against, and to hinder him from doing the simple, obvious thing in advertising, he did that very thing--and did it exceedingly well.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HISTORICAL a.s.sOCIATION IN ADVERTISING]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PACKAGE-COFFEE ADVERTISING IN 1922

Specimens of newspaper copy used by some of the most enterprising package-coffee advertisers, East and West]

In fact, in the historic advertis.e.m.e.nt, Pasqua Rosee set an example and established a copy standard which had a very beneficial effect on all the coffee advertising of that early date. This will be evident from a glance at the accompanying exhibits of other early advertis.e.m.e.nts. It was not until the days of so-called "modern" advertising that coffee publicity reached low-water mark in efficiency and value. In these dark days most coffee advertisers ignored the principles discovered and applied in other lines of grocery merchandising. Instead of telling their public how good their product was, they actually followed the opposite course, and warned the public against the dangers of coffee drinking! Instead of saying to the public, "Coffee has many virtues, and our brand is one of the best examples," their text said in effect, "Coffee has many deleterious properties; some, or most, of which have been eliminated in our particular brand."

They were, for the most part, apostles of negation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EMPHASIZING THE SOCIAL-DISTINCTION ARGUMENT]

[Ill.u.s.tration: DRAWING UPON HISTORY FOR SOCIAL-INTERCOURSE ATMOSPHERE]

Hopeful signs, however, are multiplying that this condition of things in the coffee industry has pa.s.sed, and that the practise of telling the coffee story with cert.i.tude will soon become general.

We may well applaud the publicity work of all coffee advertisers who follow where Pasqua Rosee led--those who tell the public how good coffee is to drink and how much good it does you if you drink it. Considering the advertising and typographical resources available to the modern advertiser, it certainly should be possible for this message to be conveyed to the public with at least some of the charm of the first coffee message.

One of the most notable examples of how to advertise coffee well is that set by Yuban coffee. Unquestionably, Yuban is doing in a thoroughly up-to-date and appropriate fas.h.i.+on what Pasqua Rosee started out to do in 1652.

The effect on those who give only a superficial glance at a Yuban advertis.e.m.e.nt is to arouse a keen desire to enjoy a cup of Yuban coffee.

To induce such a state of mind is, of course, the object of all good advertising.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AN ELECTRIC SIGN THAT IMPRESSED CHICAGO

There were 4,000 bulbs in this advertis.e.m.e.nt, which measured 50 x 55 feet. The rental was $3,500 a month]

Yuban advertis.e.m.e.nts have utilized two vital principles in influencing the minds of consumers. In the first place, they have made a cup of coffee seem to be a very delectable drink. In the second place, they have made the serving of a cup of coffee seem to be of the greatest social value.

One does not see in a Yuban advertis.e.m.e.nt any reference to the "removal of caffein", or to Yuban's "freedom from defects common to other coffees." There is no reference to the ill effects of drinking ordinary coffee. Yuban wastes no valuable s.p.a.ce in unselling coffee. Instead, the whole intent, effectively carried out, is to paint an enticing picture by descriptive phraseology, typographic "manner", and ill.u.s.trative treatment.

Until Yuban came, those of us in the coffee trade who had given the matter thought had often wondered why, with the wealth of material available to writers of coffee advertis.e.m.e.nts, so little had been done to make the product alluring--why so little had been done to give atmosphere to the product. So many interesting things may be said about the history of coffee; the spread of the industry through various countries; how Brazil came to be the coffee-producing country of the world; how coffee is cultivated, harvested, and s.h.i.+pped; how it is stored, roasted, handled, delivered--in short, the entire process by which coffee reaches the breakfast table from the plantations of the tropics. Yuban made effective use of this material.

Simply to tell these things in an interesting, natural, convincing way makes coffee appear as a healthful, delicious drink; whereas the negative, defensive sort of advertising, that plays into the hands of the subst.i.tutes, puts coffee in the wrong light.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HOW THREE WELL KNOWN BRANDS OF COFFEE HAVE BEEN ADVERTISED OUTDOORS]

[Ill.u.s.tration: ATTENTION-ATTRACTING CAR CARDS, SPRING OF 1922]

[Ill.u.s.tration: EFFECTIVE ICED-COFFEE COPY--ADAPTABLE FOR ANY BRAND]

When one reads Yuban advertis.e.m.e.nts, they are seen to be an entirely acceptable and appropriate presentation of coffee merit and thoroughly in accord with the principles of good advertising, as exemplified in all other lines of trade. The wonder grows why so many coffee advertisers have been content to remain in the defensive, controversial position into which the alarmist coffee-subst.i.tute advertising has jockeyed them.

The Yuban advertis.e.m.e.nts are not without their faults; errors of historical facts can be found in them; definitions are sometimes mixed; some of the drawings might be better; but, in the main, the copy is convincing and praiseworthy.

In Yuban advertis.e.m.e.nts the things that have been so long left undone have now been done in a masterful way. If we refer to the accompanying ill.u.s.trations, we can see how effectively the public is being led to realize and believe in:

1. The intrinsic desirability of coffee--the actual pleasure to be derived from the act of partaking of it.

2. That it is delightful medium for social intercourse--part of the essential equipment for an intimate chat or more general a.s.semblage of friends.

3. That its proper service is a badge of social distinction--the mark of a successful hostess.

These three thoughts, dominant in Yuban advertising, should be woven into the fabric of all coffee advertising. For with these three thoughts, Arbuckle Brothers have blazed the trail for the right thing in coffee advertising.

The Yuban case has been so largely dwelt upon here because it sets so bright and s.h.i.+ning an example. Much that is praiseworthy in it and more along the same lines is true of White House, Hotel Astor, and Seal Brand; but the copy shown will ill.u.s.trate this better than any comment.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EUROPEAN ADVERTISING NOVELTY IN NEW YORK

The absence of visible wheels aroused much curiosity in this slow-moving vehicle]

[Ill.u.s.tration: COENTIES SLIP, NEW YORK, IN THE DAYS OF SAILING VESSELS

Many coffee s.h.i.+ps from the West Indies, Arabia and the Dutch East Indies unloaded their cargoes here--From a copper-plate etching by F. Lee Hunter]

CHAPTER XXIX

THE COFFEE TRADE IN THE UNITED STATES

_The coffee business started by Dorothy Jones of Boston--Some early sales--Taxes imposed by Congress in war and peace--The first coffee plantation-machine, coffee-roaster, coffee-grinder, and coffee-pot patents--Early trade marks for coffee--Beginnings of the coffee urn, the coffee container, and the soluble-coffee business--Statistics of distribution of coffee-roasting establishments in the trade from the eighteenth century to the twentieth_

It appears from the best evidence obtainable that the coffee trade of the United States was started by a woman, one Dorothy Jones of Boston.

At least, Dorothy Jones was the first person in the colonies to whom a license was issued, in 1670, to sell coffee. It is not clear whether she sold the product in the green bean, roasted, "garbled" (ground), or "ungarbled".

Soon after the introduction of the coffee drink into the New England, New York, and Pennsylvania colonies, trading began in the raw product.

William Penn bought his green coffee supplies in the New York market in 1683, paying for them at the rate of $4.68 a pound. Benjamin Franklin engaged in the retail coffee business in Philadelphia, in 1740, as a kind of side line to his printing business.

"Tea, coffee, indigo, nutmegs, sugar etc." were being advertised for sale in 1748 at a shop in Boston, "under the vendue-room in Dock-Square." Coffee was also to be had in that year at the shop of Ebenezer Lowell in King Street, and at the Sign of the Four Sugar Loaves near the head of Long Wharf.

During the sway of the coffee houses, coffee fell from $4.68 a pound to 40 cents a pound in 1750, and to 22 cents a pound just before the Revolution. As the war came on, however, dealers began to force up prices on a dwindling market. The situation became so serious that in January, 1776, the Philadelphia Commission of Inspection issued a fair-price list, setting an arbitrary price of eleven pence per pound on coffee in bag lots. Persons found violating this price were to be "exposed to public view as sordid vultures preying on the vitals of the country."

Despite this threat, J. Peters in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, wrote to a Philadelphia friend, "I cannot purchase any coffee without taking, too, one bill a tierce of Claret & Sour, and at 6.8 per gall.... I have been trying day for day, & never could get a grain of Coffee so as to sell it at the limited price these six weeks. It may be bought, but at 25/ per lb."

The important part played by the coffee houses of colonial America, beginning with the establishment of the London coffee house in Boston, in 1689, the King's Arms in New York in 1696, and Ye coffee house in Philadelphia in 1700, has been related.

"Females" of ye olde Boston, staging in 1777 a "coffee party" which rivaled in a small way the famous Tea Party in 1773, personally chastised a profiteer h.o.a.rder of foodstuffs, and confiscated some of his stock, according to a letter from Abigail Adams to her distinguished husband, later second president of the United States.

Writing at Boston, under date of July 31, 1777, Abigail wrote to John, then attending the Continental Congress at Philadelphia:

There is a great scarcity of sugar and coffee, articles which the female part of the state is very loath to give up, especially whilst they consider the great scarcity occasioned by the merchants having secreted a large quant.i.ty. It is rumored that an eminent stingy merchant, who is a bachelor, had a hogshead of coffee in his store, which he refused to sell under 6 s.h.i.+llings per pound.

A number of females--some say a hundred, some say more--a.s.sembled with a cart and trunk, marched down to the warehouse, and demanded the keys.

Upon his finding no quarter, he delivered the keys, and they then opened the warehouse, hoisted out the coffee themselves, put it into a trunk, and drove off. A large concourse of men stood amazed, silent spectators of the whole transaction.