Riddle, circa 1901:

"Why is the merchant who doesn't advertise like a man in a rowboat?"

"Because he goes backward, I suppose."

"No; because he has to get along without sales."

After a couple of decades when advertising used enticing impressions and images to draw buyers to a product, it returned to the language of the hard sell at the turn of the century. In 1904 an enter- .prising copywriter arrived at the Chicago offices of the eminent Lord and Thomas advertising agency. He sent up a note that said, "You do not know what real advertising is. If you want to know, let me come up and tell you." An executive named Albert Lasker was sent to receive the visitor, one John E..Kennedy. The two spoke until three o'clock in the morning, when Kennedy was made the firm's new chief copywriter.

"Advertising," Kennedy...