A thunderous declaration, a quirky line, pretty pictures – all stock in trade for the local business trying to stand out. Noel Murphy steps back to yesteryear and wonders if things have changed so much after all…
IMAGINE yourself a 19th century visitor to Geelong looking for somewhere to rest your weary carcass.
Try to ignore this sales pitch you’d have found in local papers: “The favourite resort of squatters, wool buyers, merchants, sportsmen and the public. Electric light throughout. Hot and cold baths.”
Yep, impressive, very hard to pass up. But the old competition was fierce back in the day – and loads of pubs in town. Could you snub this one: “46 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms, wine bar, lounge, billiard-room, pleasant fernery and lounge, electric light, hot baths, six minutes walk from railway station and two minutes from boat.”
Enticing. Those were the advertising pitches of two of Geelong’s best pubs, the Prince of Wales and Mack’s Hotel. Black and white rendered images of their ornate masonry, wrought ironwork and general grandeur made for powerful marketing.
But maybe it’s not lodgings you’re after and rather something more of a health or medical nature. Geelong chemist WG Hearne pitched the remarkable Hearne’s Bronchitis Cure to the discerning consumer as “the famous remedy” for all manner of winter ailment – coughs, pneumonia, pleurisy, asthma, consumption… oh, bronchitis too, of course.
“Those who have taken this medicine are amazed at its splendid healing power. Sufferers from bronchitis, cough, croup, asthma, difficulty of breathing, hoarseness, pain or soreness in the chest, experience delightful and rapid relief.”
Advertising a century and more ago across Geelong looked very different to what it does today. The goods and services of the pre-internet era were rather different, the tone of persuasive chatter likewise. So too the shape of advertisements – their typefaces and artwork.
Read more on this story in GC Magazine – out now.
