The rules of harmony or rhythm do not cease in the form and disposition of the advertising space and the material. After the eye has been drawn to the advertisement, it is necessary to use all possible means to maintain attention until the story has been told. Our natures crave rhythm, and when the written “copy” corresponds to our feelings in this regard, we respond to the argument and willingly give it our attention.
To obtain the greatest effectiveness in written advertising, two important facts must be taken into account:
1. Our attention is best used when a period of thought is followed by a period of mental rest. None of the periods should be too long, because that would cause mental exhaustion; nor too short, because that distracts attention. The balance of these two factors produces rhythm and helps the thought process.
2. The sentence is the unit of thought, and therefore its structure and nature determine the rhythm of the composition. By structure we mean the number of words and the grammatical relationships of their parts. By nature is meant the character of his preaching.
In general, it is not known that the sentences of experienced writers will average about the same number of words throughout their productions. Similarly, the number of preachings per sentence will be about the same. A test made of Macaulay’s “History of England” showed that the author used an average of 23.43 words and 2.30 predications per sentence and that there were an average of 34 simple sentences per hundred sentences. Research has also shown that there is a very strong trend towards the use of simple sentences with few predications and few words.
Greek and Roman orators often used sixty or more words in a single sentence. Cicero is credited with producing a single sentence of 124 words. Examples of the best writing today indicate that about 25 words is the average needed to produce the best conditions to capture the reader’s attention. This does not mean that each sentence in the ad should only have about 25 words, but is simply a warning against using long and complicated sentences or the opposite: using the sentence too short and breathy, which loses attention. by providing all too frequent opportunities for the distraction of the reader’s thoughts.
Although adherence to the principle of balance and unity is essential for all copywriting, it is especially important in ads that require writing multiple pages. It then assumes the dignity of a congenial literary style, and further discussion of the principles and applications would involve the whole subject of the psychology of reading. The technical layout of the advertising space, the subdivisions of the space into parts, the composition of the various colors and of the written phrase, gain effect if each feature is carried out in accordance with the principles of rhythm. These are commonly known as proportion, symmetry, tone, and balance.
Remember, then, that an ad can’t claim more than a few moments of a reader’s time, so make words count in that short amount of time.