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Scott's The Theory of Advertising
Walter Dill Scott's The Theory of Advertising argued that advertising rests on psychology, and that people are suggestible, so a clear command works better than an argument. The book is mostly argument, with few tests.
- Where it sits
- Academic psychologyResearch published for other researchers and students.
- Evidence level
- DocumentedThe event or practice is documented by primary or authoritative sources.
- Sources inspected
- 4 of 44 with the relevant text, company document or archive item checked, 0 as an abstract or reference article, 0 not verified.
What happened
Walter Dill Scott, Director of the Psychological Laboratory at Northwestern University, published The Theory of Advertising with Small, Maynard and Company of Boston. The copyright page gives 1902-1903 and a publication month of October 1903, while the imprint reads 1904. Its chapters cover attention, association of ideas, suggestion, the direct command, the return coupon, fusion, experiments, perception and mental imagery. A later book, The Psychology of Advertising, was published in 1908.
The psychological idea
Scott argued that advertising has a psychological basis. He quotes an 1895 Printers' Ink editorial saying the advertising writer is really also a psychologist. His central idea is a law of suggestion: an idea of a function tends to call forth activity unless a competing idea or a physical impediment stops it. He states that all men and probably all the lower animals are suggestible.
In practice
Scott wrote that mankind as a whole is influenced more by commands than by logical processes of thought, but that people become obstinate once they notice an order. A command should therefore be worded so that each reader thinks they are doing what they want. He described the return coupon as making answering easier and as holding before the mind the one specific suggestion desired.
Why it mattered
The book is a statement, from the first years of the twentieth century, that advertising could be built on psychological principles, and it used suggestion as a selling concept. Hollingworth's 1913 book cites two of Scott's studies of readers, and Lippmann's Public Opinion cites his Psychology of Advertising in a footnote. The customer as suggestible is Scott's premise, not a result of his own tests.
Limits and qualifications
The book is mostly argument. The experiment described in chapter II is informal: a card of letters shown for one twenty-fifth of a second. Illustrations of suggestion include a cavalry stampede, a bank run and the Dutch tulip mania, which are anecdotes and not tests. At the end of chapter II he lists open questions, such as the most valuable size and style of type. Chapters VII onward, including those on perception and mental imagery, were not read.
Evidence behind the claims
The Theory of Advertising was written by Walter Dill Scott, Director of the Psychological Laboratory at Northwestern University, and published by Small, Maynard and Company, Boston; the imprint reads 1904, the copyright 1902-1903 and the publication month October 1903; chapters include Attention, Suggestion, The Direct Command and The Psychological Value of the Return Coupon.
Scott quotes an 1895 Printers' Ink editorial that the advertising writer is really also a psychologist, states that every idea of a function tends to call forth activity unless a competing idea or physical impediment stops it, and writes that all men and probably all the lower animals are suggestible.
Scott writes that mankind as a whole is influenced more by commands than by logical processes of thought, that people become obstinate once they notice an order, that commands should make each reader think they are doing what they want, and that the return coupon makes answering easier and holds before the mind the one specific suggestion desired.
Scott describes a card of letters shown for one twenty-fifth of a second, illustrates suggestion with a cavalry stampede, a bank run and the Dutch tulip mania, and ends chapter II with open questions such as the most valuable size and style of type.
Hollingworth's 1913 book cites Scott's survey of 2,000 Chicago men's newspaper reading and his observation of 600 men in the Chicago public library.
A Spanish-language editorial presentation says Scott's The Psychology of Advertising was published in 1908, when he directed the psychology laboratory at Northwestern University.
Lippmann's Public Opinion cites W. D. Scott, The Psychology of Advertising, in a footnote at the start of Chapter IV, with the date given as uncertain.
People involved
- Walter Dill Scott. Author, Director of the Psychological Laboratory at Northwestern University
In the Psy101 course
- OpenStax Psychology 2e, section 13.1: What Is Industrial and Organizational Psychology?Chapter 13, Industrial-Organizational Psychology. Context. The section discusses this topic.The section says Scott was one of the first to apply psychology to advertising and describes his early books on psychology in business.
This is course relevance only. It is not evidence for the historical or corporate claims on this page.See the full course map.
Sources and inspection
4 of 4 sources were opened and read at the level shown. A source marked as not verified supports no claim on this page by itself.
- [1]The Theory of Advertising: A Simple Exposition of the Principles of Psychology in Their Relation to Successful AdvertisingScott, W. D.. Small, Maynard and Company, Boston; scan at Internet Archive, 1903. Book. Primary source.Relevant text checkedRead the OCR text as returned by the fetch tool, characters 0 to 200,000 of about 364,000: title page, contents, chapters I to VI. Chapters VII onward were not read.
- [2]Psicología de la publicidad de productos alimenticios (Spanish translation of a Scott chapter, with editorial presentation)Scott, W. D.; presentation by Bermejo Berros, J.. Pensar la Publicidad, 2(2), 145-158, 2008. Journal article. Secondary account.Relevant text checkedRead pages 145 to 147 of the PDF as page images: the editorial presentation. The Scott chapter itself was not read. Used only for the 1908 book and Scott's post.
- [3]Advertising and Selling: Principles of Appeal and ResponseHollingworth, H. L.. D. Appleton and Company; scan at Internet Archive, 1913. Book. Secondary account.Relevant text checkedRead the first 100,000 characters (of about 432,000) of the OCR text as returned by the fetch tool. Used only for the passage in chapter III citing Scott's readership studies.
- [4]Public OpinionLippmann, W.. Project Gutenberg, ebook 6456, 1922. Book. Secondary account.Relevant text checkedRead the first 100,000 characters (of about 635,000) of the Gutenberg text as returned by the fetch tool. Used only for the footnote citing Scott.
Access note: The scan's imprint year reads 1904; 1903 follows the copyright page. The 1908 book was not opened.
Independent source review: Claude review agent, independent of the research agent, 2026-10-21. Verdict: pass-with-edits.