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Secret #5: The One Element Missing 65

Back in 1926 she wrote in Through Many Windows, her
autobiography, “In the old days, no one ever wrapped
money-making eagerness in sweet words like service.
Businessmen were frankly after money. They are still
after money, but they know now that it is good policy
to deliver something good to keep the customer. So they
make better goods at better prices—because they have
to. And they call that service.”

Recently a new client came to me. She wanted to write
a book on service. When I asked why, she said she had
heard it was “in.” She had little experience in deliver-
ing service and wasn’t sure what service really meant,
but she was convinced that writing a book on the sub-
ject would advance her career. However, it wouldn’t
advance it far. And not for long.

Without sincerity, you’re selling air. Sooner or later
someone (a Helen Woodward of our generation) will
blow the whistle on you. You’ll be exposed as a fraud.
You’ll lose credibility.

What Woodward saw in her generation was a bunch
of businessmen who had heard that service would help
them. They weren’t sincerely interested in delivering
service. They were sincerely interested in making money.
(There’s nothing wrong with making money; but it should
come as a result of your service.)

Roy Durstine (the D in BBDO), in his 1921 book
Making Advertisements and Making Them Pay, wrote,
“Without sincerity an advertisement is no more conta-
gious than a sprained ankle.”

And Robert Bedner, in his 1949 senior thesis biogra-
phy of Barton, wrote, “Contrary to the general belief