A BRAIN FOR THE GAME:HOW P.T.BARNUM REVOLUTIONIZED ADVERTISING
Matthew HallockMay, 2000
1.
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
2.
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-
3.
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
4.
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
8.
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.
14.
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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