A BRAIN FOR THE GAME:HOW P.T.BARNUM REVOLUTIONIZED ADVERTISING

Matthew HallockMay, 2000

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Phineas T. Barnum has a sullied reputation today. Hes perhaps

best known for his circus, now called Ringling Brothers and Barnum &

Bailey, which he actually began when he was in his 60s. Historically, the

circus conjures up images of fast talkers with loose morals, of social out-

casts who have found a home in the community of the travelling show.

There are the barkers who overpromise, the fortune-tellers and games of

chance where the only sure bet is that youll lose your money.

In this vein, Barnum is remembered as a huckster, a snake oil sales-

man, a symbol of hype. (Phineas means mouth of brass in Hebrew.)

Instead, he should be remembered as an incredibly successful and

honest businessperson. He was a self-made millionaire.1 And when bad

investments and duplicity wiped him out, he remade his fortune.

Barnum began giving the lecture The Art of Money-Getting in

1858 when he was in England recovering from bankruptcy.2 The lecture

centered around his credo for healthy living, such as avoid debt, focus

on your work, read newspapers, and, perhaps above all else, advertise

constantly and heavily.3

This paper focuses on the last point. Advertising was Barnums cor-

nerstone to building a successful business. He wrote in his book

Humbugs of the World:Advertising is to a genuine article what manure is to land it largely increases the product. Thousands of personsmay be reading your advertisement while you are eating,or sleeping, or attending to your business; hence publicattention is attracted, new customers come to you, and, ifyou render them a satisfactory equivalent for theirmoney, they continue to patronize you and recommendyou to their friends.

He said that every dollar spent in advertising came back ten times.

He didnt just pour money into advertising, either. Barnums techniques

were incredibly sophisticated and grounded in solid marketing princi-

ples. He demonstrated an intuitive sense of what works, and continued to

innovate and experiment throughout his long career. He was so well-

respected that in his day any marketing innovation was called a

Barnumism.4

Barnum understood the value of advertising better than anyone

before. He also recognized the strength of publicity, which can be

defined as unpaid promotions through the press and word of mouth.

Its almost inconceivable that one person could be so ahead of his

time. Barnum conceived, tested and refined many of the techniques that

form the basis of modern advertising. Many of them seem commonplace

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and obvious now, but they werent in the 19th century. For example, in

the 1870s department store magnate John Wanamaker of Philadelphia

became the first store owner to take out a full-page newspaper ad and to

hire a full-time copy chief. At the same time, Barnum was employing

entire teams of advertisers to promote his circuses. In addition, Barnum

was light years ahead of other 19th century advertisers. While they were

satisfied to just print their name and products or services offered,

Barnum was experimenting with the content of his ads to generate higher

response. He had many rules and achievements, including:

Write in the active tense, not the passive. See the circus at 7 PM!

vs. The circus will be at 7 PM. He also experimented with boldfaces,

bullets, subhead and short sentences to break up the copy.

He created news value in his headlines. To promote the 160 year-

old Joice Heth, the ad said she was The Greatest Natural and National

Curiosity in the World. He would use phrases like At last.

Use celebrity endorsements to add credibility. Incidentally, while

Barnum was writing to leading figures asking for their testimonials,

other advertisers, including Thomas Edison promoting his phono-

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graph, were running unauthorized celebrity endorsements. Its ironic

that others were the duplicitous ones, given Barnums slick reputa-

tion.

Offer guarantees.

Give a deadline. Note in the ad at the right

how Barnum said the Fejee Mermaid would be

here for one week more. In reality, it would be

exhibited as long as there was a paying crowd.

Use dramatic visuals. Barnum showed

a roaring hippo, not just a hippo stand-

ing there.

Media placement. Barnum wanted the

top 1/3 of a page. In 1879, his printers

spent $3,000 and three months making

a poster that covered the entire side of a building. Own the media

any way you can.

The American Museum

His first great success was the American Museum in lower

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The hippo roars. And who could passup 200 educated white rats?

Manhattan. Through innovative advertising, he made the museum a suc-

cess and showed other businesses the power of it. He also demonstrated

the fascination people have for a singular individual the achiever.

When Barnum bought the institution (then called the Scudder

Museum) in 1840, he immediately ordered larger billboards and hand-

bills than had ever been seen before.

In his era, most ad visuals were woodcuts. A craftsman would carve

a likeness into a block of wood, which was then inked to create a relief

image for reproduction. The preferred carving wood was boxwood

because its dense grain and strength would endure the repetitive impres-

sions from the printing process. However, boxwood is a small tree, the

trunk usually growing about six inches in diameter at maturity. To make

an image, craftsmen would have to carve several blocks of boxwood and

then bolt them together for printing. One of Barnums first instructions

to the printer was to make a woodcut portrait of him four times larger

than anything previously done. The result was a 2 x 3 woodcut just of

Barnums head. The poster was plastered throughout New York City and

immediately created a buzz for the American Museum.

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Its hard to overstate the Barnums vision here and the impact he

had on advertising. He was a store clerk with a wife and children who

had spent the last five years investing in one failed venture or con after

another, including a grease that was supposed to grow hair. He had put

up what little money he had and borrowed heavily for the rest to pur-

chase the money-losing Scudder Museum.

So Barnums belief in the power of advertising really paid off.

Consider his situation and courage. Even though he was poor and just

starting out, he wasnt content to just secure ownership of the museum

and try to build it slowly. He immediately pushed the printers to do the

biggest, best work they had ever done. This was an enormously expen-

sive gamble.

The museums fortunes improved immediately. Revenue tripled the

first year, from $11,000 to over $30,000, with steady increases every

year after that. He also used posters, lights and music, then gave people

their moneys worth.

It became a must see. And why not? It was a bargain only 25

for 5 floors jam-packed with 850,000 displays.5 He claimed, Perhaps

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down. The American population was only 35 million. Many people came

time and again. When it was destroyed, The New York Timescalled it a

landmark of the city; has afforded us in childhood fullest vision of the

wonderful and miraculous; has opened to us the secrets of the earth, and

revealed to us the mysteries of the past; has preserved intact relics of

days and ages long since gone, and carefully saved from the ravages of

time and the gnawing tooth of decay the garments and utensils of men of

note long since moldered.6

Barnum not only made his museum a success; his advertising tech-

niques helped change outdoor advertising. His huge head posters were

soon colorized, then the animals and freaks from his collection began

appearing in the ads. This realism movement caught on. Theatres began

showing actors in their roles instead of real-life portraits. Circuses and

others began hiring woodcutters to promote their shows. Clothing stores

began putting up billboards on the roads outside of town. The prolifera-

tion of outdoor advertising continued unabated, to where by the 1890s

entire buildings in New York, London and Paris were covered from street

level to the roof with dozens of billboards.

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there never was before in the world such an instance of extraordinary

success as this museum presents. That was the truth. Barnum believed

in providing a quality product. Theres no evidence he ever said,

Theres a sucker born every minute. In fact, he believed just the oppo-

site. He said, It is of no advantage to advertise unless you intend to hon-

estly fulfill the promises made in this manner.

Among the sights in the American Museum were a phrenologist

examining customers heads for personality profiles; fortune tellers; a

hall of wax figures; natural wonders; human oddities, from dwarfs to

giants to albinos; dioramas; reptiles, tigers, insects, tropical fish and live

whales; a rifle and pistol gallery and a bowling alley; a taxidermist to

stuff and mount recently deceased pets; educational entertainment, and

a Lecture Room that was really a theatre. Theatres in the 1800s had a

bad reputation as a locale for hookers and thugs. Barnum held quality

plays and lectures at the American Museum (especially after he matured

and was embarrassed by his huckster reputation), and it was one of

the first stages for Tom Thumb.

38 million people visited the museum in 1865, the year it burned

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The Person As The Product

Barnum was one of the first businessmen to realize the value of

name recognition. He had his name plastered all over the place. The

American Museum posters featuring his head established Barnum as a

brand. The American consumer loves an individual: somebody who has

the guts and panache to represent a movement or age. An icon, a hero.

Frank Lloyd Wright, Cher, Donald Trump, Madonna these people used

or use the same fascination. They transcend their profession and become

personalities. Theyve realized that its not enough to have talent. These

celebrities have broken through the clutter with continual self-promo-

tion. Then, love you or hate you, people will know you.

Barnum became so associated with museums that people thought a

museum in any city must be his. The novelty and size of the American

Museum posters helped Barnum gain recognition throughout New York

and soon the country. He became one of the most-recognized faces in

America for over 50 years. In 1847, toward the end of his European

tours with Tom Thumb, Barnum found that people were as interested in

seeing him as his exhibits.7

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But Barnum understood that self-promotion isnt self-perpetuating.

Its more like a leaky bucket. He continually advertised himself to attract

new audiences to replace those who had seen his shows. He was a fore-

runner of Richard Branson, the flamboyant founder of Virgin Atlantic.

Barnum did things like sponsor a balloon attempt across the Atlantic. He

offered $5,000 for the right to say the first words after the transatlantic

cable was laid. Held the first beauty pageant. His active mind was con-

stantly searching for the next stunt or event to keep himself and his ven-

tures in the public consciousness.

In the 1880s, Barnum announced that anyone could publish his

autobiography without paying him or even asking him for permission.8

He knew that circulation was the key.

The Press

The flip side of self-promotion is the power of the press. Newspaper

and magazine coverage is free advertising that carries more weight

because it has news credibility without the stigma of a paid message.

Barnum knew it, too.

He said, I am indebted to the press for almost every dollar

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which I possess . The very great popularity which I have attained both

at home and abroad I ascribe almost entirely to the liberal and persistent

use of the public journals of this country.9

To promote the Fejee Mermaid, Barnum had friends from southern

cities send newspaper editors mentioning that a British naturalist had a

remarkable mermaid with him. When it came to New York, Barnum per-

mitted the reporters to have a close examination of it, which convinced

many of its authenticity. He simultaneously made woodcuts of a mer-

maid and distributed them to the newspapers, each thinking they were

getting an exclusive. Finally, he arranged for a week-long lecture series

concerning the mermaid. This all worked to arouse the publics appetite.

He advertised that it was now on display at the American Museum with-

out extra charge. Gate receipts tripled.

Barnum often leveraged his status as a heavy advertiser to gain full

newspaper coverage. His exploitation of the press was so pervasive that it

helped create the division between editorial and advertising departments

that exists today. It still happens occasionally. Jan Wenner, publisher of

Rolling Stone magazine, is a modern figure who has profited with

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Barnums strategy of using ads to gain news coverage. For many years,

Wenner has written high-profile articles on recording artists, with the

demand that the record labels place ads in his magazine. This tension

between advertising and editorial is played out on a daily basis. For

example, Forbes magazine may be about to run an article saying how XYZ

Corporation is a big polluter, but theyll get a phone call from XYZ

threatening to pull all the advertising for the year if the article runs.

Barnum, as a big advertiser, had this type of clout with publica-

tions.

The Teaser

Today, one of movie studios favorite techniques is the teaser

creating excitement for an upcoming release through advertising and

promotion. Theyre copying Barnum. The Fejee Mermaid described above

is one example. Another is the excitement Barnum built for the singer

Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale.

Jenny Lind was a young soprano who was the rage of Europe. She

performed for royalty and packed houses throughout the continent.

Without ever seeing her or hearing her sing, Barnum in 1850 paid

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$200,000 in advance to manage an American tour for her. Only a few

hours later, a train conductors innocent question made him realize that

nobody in America knew who she was.

Undaunted, Barnum created the greatest advance advertising cam-

paign America had ever seen. For six months, he flooded the newspapers

with stories of her benevolence to the poor and the fact that she was

donating great parts of her concert proceeds to charity. He painted the

picture of an angel. In the spirit of religious revivalism of the times, this

news carried greater

weight than her

singing voice. Like

Cicero the orator said,

Know Your Audience.

Barnum emphasized

the parts of the Lind

story that most

appealed to people.

Barnum held a contest to write an Ode to America for Lind to

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Jenny Lind arrives in America

sing. He had a hotel proprietor pay $1,000 for the rights to house her.

He even held an auction for opening-night tickets, and persuaded his

friend Genin the Hatter to bid the most for them. The price for Genin

was dear, but it gave the haberdasher national fame and helped increase

his business many fold.

Lind arrived in New York to a waiting crowd of approximately

30,000 people. Few, if any of them had ever heard her sing. It was all the

product of Barnums teaser campaign.

Incidentally, Lind didnt disappoint, playing to packed houses

throughout the states. She had several disputes with Barnum, though,

namely over her secret marriage and her distaste for being packaged on

the evenings entertainment bill with animals and freaks. When she left

to return to Europe, there were only 2,000 people to see her off. So there

was a fraction of the crowd to say goodbye after she was famous in

America then when she was arriving as an unknown further proof of

Barnums marketing prowess.

Another example is Barnums huge circus advance team. This well-

coordinated group would stay a few towns ahead of the travelling show.

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They plastered towns with posters, ads, handbills and newspaper articles,

building up an excitement that this was the greatest thing ever to come

so you had better not miss it. Again, while this sounds routine today,

nobody had done it with Barnums efficiency, money or on his scale. He

spent far more on advertising than his competitors generated in revenue.

Tragically, a train in 1877 carrying the Centennial circus advance adver-

tising car fell through a bridge in Iowa, killing 7 employees.

The Loss Leader

Its common practice for supermarkets to price an item for less

than they paid for it. The idea is to draw people into the store, where

theyll not only purchase the loss leader, but usually other items as

well, which are regularly priced.

Theyre taking a page from Barnums book. Once, Barnum offered a

free Grand Buffalo Hunt across the Hudson River in New Jersey. He

bought 3,000 sickly buffalo that some cowboys were to lasso. Come the

day of the show, the emaciated animals milled about and didnt do

much. The high point was when they stampeded into the swamp.

But Barnum didnt care. He had leased the ferries for the day and

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made a small fortune on the fares from 25,000 people who shuttled back

and forth to the event.

Turns out, the people didnt care the buffalo hunt was lousy. They

knew they had been hoodwinked. On the Hudson River, patrons on the

returning ferries from the event yelled to the arrivals that the exhibition

was a big farce. The newcomers instantly started cheering for the author

of this great joke.

The Spirit Of The Times

The reaction of the audience on the approaching ferry is not sur-

prising. This was an age when people looked forward to being tricked.

Hoaxes were part of the national psyche. Its really not unlike Nike today

telling us to Just Do It. Being urged to stay physically fit is part of

todays culture. People appreciated Barnum because he had a flair for

having people feel grateful for being manipulated. He had an ability to

get people to pay to be fooled. Barnum: The bigger the humbug, the

better people will like it.10

He knew that people wanted to weigh in whether the topic at hand

was true or false. They wanted to not only see the hoax but pay to hear

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how it was committed. Barnum said a man would pay a quarter to hear

how he was swindled out of $20. Barnum understood that the opportu-

nity to debate the issue of falsity, to discover how deception had been

practiced, was even more exciting than the discovery of fraud itself.11

New York was already known as Gotham, the legendary town of

fools.12 There had been hoaxes dating back to Washington Irvings

Salmagundi in the early 19th century. There had been the Moon Hoax

perpetuated by the New York Sunand Edgar Allan Poe. Some have specu-

lated that the prevalence of hoaxes had a parallel in the American fron-

tier, and the western tall tales that came out of it.

Barnum felt that his success was based on some fundamental prin-

ciples for living that anyone could adopt. The Beatles thought that any

musician could make it big if they just tried hard, too. Theyre both

wrong. And although they were a century apart, both Barnum and The

Beatles display a remarkable lack of insight into human nature.

Ironically, both became huge successes thanks in large part to their

understanding of humanity. Barnum translated this understanding into

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extraordinary financial success. His relentless quest to find techniques

that would geneate response from his target market really is mind bog-

gling. And his strategies, from the smallest trick to the grandest ideas,

form major parts of many of the laws and principles of advertising that

we follow today.

Endnotes 1 He was probably Americas second millionaire, after John Jacob Astor.

2 He lost most of his fortune through an investment in the Jerome ClockCompany. The company used securities that he had signed many timesover, so Barnum was quickly and unknowingly on the hook for muchmore money than he had intended. Barnum joked that his Art ofMoney-Getting speech should be called The Art of Money-Losing.3 Harris, pg. 1564 Vitale, pg. 1335 Harris, pg. 165-7 and others6 Harris, pg. 170.7 Harris, pg. 1038 Barnumiana, pg. 159 Vitale, pg. 6010 Harris, pg. 168.11 Harris, pg. 7712 Harris, pg. 6813 Ries & Trout 14 Saxon

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barnumiana: A select, annotated bibliography of works by or relating toP.T. Barnum. Compiled by Dr. Arthur H. Saxon. Fairfield, CT: JumbosPress, 1995.

Finger, Charles J. Life of Barnum, the Man Who Lured the Herd.Girard,Kan.: Haldeman-Julius, 1924.

Harris, Neil. Humbug: The Art of P.T. Barnum. University of ChicagoPress, 1973.

Kunhardt, Philip B. Jr., Philip B. II, and Peter W. Barnum. New York:Alfred A. Knopf, 1995.

Presbrey, Frank. The History and Development of Advertising. GardenCity, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1929.

Ries, Al and Trout, Jack. Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind. New York:McGraw Hill, 1985.

Saxon, A.H. Selected Letters of P.T. Barnum. New York: ColumbiaUniversity Press, 1983.

Vitale, Joe. Theres a Customer Born Every Minute. Joe Vitale: 1996.

Wallace, Irving. The Fabulous Showman. New York: Alfred A. Knopf,1959.

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Some More Tricks of his Trade

Barnum was an endless stream of business-generating ideas. A few:

** He opened his American Museum at dawn so busy workers could

visit.

** He put flags on the roof so people could see it from a distance;

installed a balcony so the street traffic would see people visiting the

Museum; a revolving lighthouse on the roof; hung huge color pictures of

animals outside the building, and illuminated transparencies that pro-

jected images on the Museums walls.

** He hired the worst band he could find to play on the balcony of

the American Museum, on the theory that they would drive people into

the museum to get out of earshot.

** He hired a man to lay carry a brick to opposite corners in front of

the museum. The mans strange actions soon attracted a crowd, who

made their way into the museum.

** He held a baby contest to promote his new American museum in

1848. Over 60,000 people came.

** He changed Charles Strattons name to Tom Thumb. Ralph Lauren

(formerly Ralph Lipshitz) can attest to the power of the right name.

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** Barnum knew the importance of being first. Modern marketing

gurus Jack Reis and Al Trout13 talk about this, too, calling being first

critical in product success and in love. Barnum brough the first live hip-

popotamus to America and the first elephant, Jumbo.

** He hitched a plow to Jumbo and had him work the fields by the

railroad tracks in Bridgeport, but only when the train was passing by. He

simply wanted to publicize his New York attractions, but farmers wrote

him wondering if pachyderms could work the fields. Barnum had to pub-

lish a letter saying it was just a publicity stunt.

** He even advertised his American Museum down the side of his per-

sonal stationery.

** Barnum published a large book called Humbugs of the Worldin

1865. So he was establishing himself as an authority. This self-promotion

technique is used today.

** He wrote a handwritten intro to Dollars & Sense that was printed in

every copy of the book. Barnum knew the book would increase in value

because people would think they had personally autographed copies.

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