It was an ordinary day. Looking at a few photographs of automobiles from the early 1910s. Cars with names such as the Peugeot, Stutz, Rolls-Royce, Mercedes, Locomobile and even the Cadillac which featured the Model 30 which was one of Cadillac's first long-production models which were manufactured well into WWI. The car had an exceptionally long production life and was upgraded from year to year. But, what made the Cadillac one of the best automobiles was their advertisements they placed in publications. One advertisement was titled "THE PENALTY of LEADERSHIP" and was placed in the Saturday Evening Post. The advertisement ran first on January 2, 1915. Whose idea it was to do this was a genius it seems. It made Cadillac one of the best known cars at the time. The advertisement read:
The Penalty of Leadership
“In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white glare of publicity. Whether the leadership be vested in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at work. In art, in music, in industry, the reward and punishment are always the same. The reward is widespread recognition; the punishment, fierce denial and detraction. When a man’s work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few. If his work is mediocre, he will be left severely alone—if he achieves a masterpiece, it will set a million tongue a-wagging. Jealousy does not protrude its forked tongue at the artist who produces a commonplace painting. Whatsoever you write, or paint, or play, or sing, or build, no one will strive to surpass or to slander you unless your work be stamped with the seal of genius. Long, long after a great work or a good work has been done, those who are disappointed or envious, continue to cry out that it cannot be done. Spiteful little voices in the domain of art were raised against our own Whistler as a mountebank, long after the big would have acclaimed him its greatest artistic genius. Multitudes flocked to Bayreuth to worship at the musical shrine of Wagner, while the little group of those whom he dethroned and displaced argued angrily that he was no musician at all. The little world continued to protest that Fulton could never build a steamboat, while the big world flocked to the river banks to see his boat steam by. The leader is assailed because he is the leader, and the effort to equal him is merely added proof of that leadership. Failing to equal or excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy—but only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives to supplant. There is nothing new in this. It is as old as the world and as old as human passions—envy, fear, greed, ambition, and the desire to surpass. And it all avails nothing. If the leader truly leads, he remains—the leader. Master-poet, master-painter, master-workman, each in his turn is assailed, and each holds his laurels through the ages. That which is good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial. That which deserves to live—lives.”
The copy didn't mention Cadillac by name, or the V-8, or automobiles. The advertisement ran one time with no photo or illustration and wide margins of white space around it. It appeared in the Saturday Evening Post on January 2, 1915. It was the work of a genius. When it was found it was an ad from Cadillac, Cadillac was swamped with requests for reprints and Cadillac Salesmen carried copies to give away to prospects. Sales exploded. Salesmen asked people to test drive a new Cadillac and "May the Best Car Win!" Can you think of any other car advertisement in the past couple of years that would have had the same impression as this advertisement did? For its time...it will forever be known as the greatest advertisement of it's era. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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