-Soft Sell-

grandfather's hat ad
Originally uploaded by benedict monk.

No need to worry about copyright here; this advertisement was taken from 1880 copy of the Reading Times. At the princely sum of $0.08 a line, they certainly knew how to grab the consumer. Especially if the ad was political - G.C. stands for Grover Cleveland.

Another used a softer sales approach. The lead was "Not exactly."

"Have you ever been at sea? No, Not exactly,
but my brother married an admiral's
daughter.
Were you ever in France? No, not exactly,
but my mother's name was French.
Did you ever have the Rheumatism? No,
not exactly, but my father has and he cured
it with Dr. Thomas' Eclectic Oil."