E. St. Elmo Lewis
Elias St. Elmo Lewis | |
|---|---|
| Born | Error: Invalid birth date for calculating age Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | 18 March 1948 (aged 75) St. Petersburg, Florida, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Advertising professional, author |
| Known for | Creator of the AIDA model in marketing; Advertising Hall of Fame inductee (1951) |
Elias St. Elmo Lewis (March 23, 1872 – March 18, 1948) was a prominent American figure in advertising, recognized for championing the role of advertising in public education. He was honored posthumously with induction into the Advertising Hall of Fame in 1951 and is credited with creating the influential AIDA model in marketing.
Biography
Lewis was born in Philadelphia to Enos Rees and Mary Bartram Lewis. His maternal lineage included notable ancestors such as John Bannister Gibson and John Bartram, while paternally he descended from the family of Meriwether Lewis. His middle name, St. Elmo, was inspired by the 1866 novel written by Augusta Jane Evans. He received his education at North Broad Street Select School (later known as Eastburn Academy) and the University of Pennsylvania, where he served as editor of the "University Courier." Early in his career, Lewis managed arts publications and operated a printing business.
In 1896, he established The Advertisers' Agency in Philadelphia, which became known for its catchphrase "Ask Lewis about it." That same year, he oversaw advertising for the H. K. Mulford Company's diphtheria antitoxin and conducted one of the earliest scientific customer surveys involving 5,000 physicians. By 1897, his agency had expanded to include offices in Buffalo and Detroit, with Charles J. Shearer as president while Lewis continued as general manager. In 1901, he founded the Peirce School of Advertising at Peirce College in Philadelphia and reorganized his agency under the name E. St. Elmo Lewis, Incorporated, backed by $50,000 in capital stock. He stepped down from his company in 1902 and sold his shares by the following year.
Between 1902 and 1903, Lewis was employed at the NCR Corporation. Later in 1903, he joined The Book-Keeper as assistant general manager and managing editor. The following year, he authored The Credit Man and His Work while also serving as managing editor for The Business Man's Magazine. From 1905 until 1914, he held the position of advertising manager at the Burroughs Adding Machine Company, a leading manufacturer of calculators.
In June 1910, Lewis was elected president of the newly created National Association of Advertising Managers, an organization he had helped establish two years earlier in 1908. Later roles included vice-president and general manager at the Art Metal Construction Company in 1914 and advertising and sales counsel at Campbell Ewald Co. from 1915 to 1926.
Following this period, Lewis served as a counselor specializing in consumer and trade relations for National Services, Inc. based in Detroit. By 1931, he was vice-president and editorial director at Keystone Publishing Company in Philadelphia. In 1932, he took charge of marketing at Advisory Management Corporation, which provided management consulting services to businesses and trade groups. In 1937, he offered guidance to industrial firms in Evansville on community initiatives aimed at fostering industrial harmony.
Lewis was married to Maude Rose Wherry. During the early 1940s, they moved to St. Petersburg, Florida due to health considerations. He passed away there in March 1948; Maude Rose died in 1976.
Advertising principles
Since the release of The Psychology of Selling and Advertising by Edward K. Strong, Jr. in 1925, the AIDA framework has frequently been attributed to Lewis. Strong acknowledged that Lewis originated the phrase attract attention, maintain interest, create desire in 1898 and subsequently added get action.
The table below outlines how Lewis’ advertising concepts developed over time:
| Year | Model | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1899 | capture reader’s attention, inform them, convert into customer | The Western Druggist, 21 (February), p. 66 |
| 1903 | draw reader’s attention, engage interest, persuade | The Book-Keeper, 15 (February), p. 124 |
| 1908 | capture attention, arouse interest, establish conviction | Financial Advertising, Indianapolis: Levey Bros. & Co. |
| 1909 | attract attention, stimulate interest, convince/persuade | The Bankers' Magazine, 78 (April), pp. 710–711 |
Lewis initially introduced his advertising concepts under the pseudonym "Musgrove" in an 1897 column for The Inland Printer, where he underscored the importance of focused attention within advertisement design. By December of that year, he emphasized that capturing and retaining a reader’s attention was fundamental.
Two components from his 1898 slogan—"attract attention" and "maintain interest"—were already well established by that time. His book Financial Advertising, originally slated for publication in fall 1907 but postponed due to the Panic of 1907, expanded significantly from an initial length of around 600 pages to nearly a thousand pages. The four parts of his original slogan were distributed throughout various chapters; terms like "create demand" were sometimes used interchangeably with "create desire." The distinction between this educational four-step slogan and the more concise three-step advertising model remains significant.
Lewis maintained that effective advertisements must first secure attention; without it, generating interest or conviction is impossible. He suggested that attraction depends on how compellingly an ad appeals on a personal level and argued that once favorable attention is secured it naturally leads to sustained interest without requiring conscious effort. The third stage involves persuading readers by presenting logical reasons supporting the advertisement’s message to gain their conscious agreement—often prompting action through immediate incentives like coupons.
As market dynamics evolved during the early twentieth century, Lewis highlighted the importance of stimulating desire among consumers before sales teams could capitalize on it—marking a strategic shift toward educating buyers rather than merely selling.
Harvard scholar William James had a profound influence on Lewis’ thinking—especially James’ ideas regarding the stream of consciousness and transitions between mental states. This intellectual integration represents Lewis’ enduring contribution to advertising theory beyond simply formulating or sequencing model components. Moreover, James’ terminology influenced much of Lewis’ vocabulary.
Looking back on his professional journey, Lewis observed that he had consistently concentrated on merchandising and advertising from the perspective of consumers. Since as early as 1898, he advocated for developing advertising and sales strategies grounded firmly in consumer research—a viewpoint aligned with John Ruskin’s assertion that consumption is ultimately the purpose behind production and demands greater skillful attention than production itself.
Other Contributions
Lewis' work Getting the Most Out of Business, frequently overlooked in the chronicles of organizational behavior, was published in six editions over a span of four years following its initial 1915 release and was translated into French by 1923. The book evolved from a series of twelve articles entitled "The New Gospel of Efficiency" featured in The Caxton, systematically outlining principles associated with the Efficiency Movement. Lewis drew distinctions between the scientific management methods of Frederick Winslow Taylor and Harrington Emerson, promoting instead the concept of fostering the "development of the whole man for the whole business":
In 1911, Lewis presented "The Savings Idea and the People" to the American Bankers Association, encouraging savings bankers to implement an "aggressive conservation" strategy. He highlighted their crucial economic function in advancing national savings through education and the promotion of conserving human effort.
Anecdotal Accounts
An account from the March 1905 edition of Ad sense describes a dramatic event in which Lewis narrowly avoided injury due to an attempted poisoning and arson at Detroit's Alhambra cafe:
Selected Bibliography
Early in his career as an advertising professional, Lewis oversaw multiple advertising columns within pharmaceutical and printing periodicals:
- "Printing and Publicity Problems" (under the pseudonym "Musgrove," The Inland Printer, 1897)
- "The Struggle for Publicity" (The Spatula, 1897–98)
- "Side Talks about Advertising" (The Western Druggist, 1899)
- "Publicity for Printers" (as "Musgrove," The American Printer, 1900–01)
- "Advertising Department" (The Book-Keeper, 1901–03)
- "Advertising It" (The Spatula, 1901)
Books
- (1897) The Heart of It, Philadelphia: The Advertiser's Press [covering drug advertising theory and practice]
- (1899) Publicity for Printers, Winchester: The Enterprise Printing Company [written as "Musgrove"]
- (1904) The Credit Man and His Work, Detroit: The Book-Keeper Publishing
- (1908) Financial Advertising, Indianapolis: Levey Bros. & Company
- (1914) Efficient Cost Keeping, Detroit: Burroughs Adding Machine Company (3rd edition)
- (1915) Getting the Most Out of Business, New York: The Ronald Press
- (1935) A Special Training Course for Chevrolet Service and Parts Managers, Chicago: Argus Press
- (1936) Going to Make a Speech? New York: The Ronald Press
Journal Articles
- (1899) "Side Talks about Advertising," The Western Druggist
- (1903) "Advertising Department: Catch-Line and Argument," The Book-Keeper
- (1909) "The Duty and Privilege of Advertising a Bank," The Bankers' Magazine
- (1910) "More Science in Advertising," Printers' Ink
- (1910) "Developing Exact Knowledge about Advertising," Printers' Ink
- (1911) "Creative Salesmanship," Ford Times
- (1911) "New Gospel of Efficiency," The Caxton
- (1916–17) "The Six Principles of Scientific Salesmanship," Engineering Magazine / Industrial Management [eight-part series]
- (1918) "Propaganda as a Modern Part of Advertising," Advertising and Selling
- (1920) "What if There Should Be a Brotherhood of Consumers," Printers' Ink
- (1925) "Making the Advertising Man See the Customer's Viewpoint," American Industries
- (1930) "Problems of the Consumer," Brick Clay Record
- (1937) "A Critique of Consumer Cooperative Theory and Practice," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
References
No exhaustive biography exists on E. St. Elmo Lewis. Significant biographical details are available in J. W. T. Knox’s article, "Lewis - Builder of Business," written by a close collaborator.
- (1895) "E. St. Elmo Lewis, Editor of Moods," Current Literature
- (1897) "E. St. Elmo Lewis - Advertising," The Inland Printer
- (1901) E. St. Elmo Lewis, "Five Years Ago I Started in Business," The Book-Keeper
- (1910) J. H. Collins, "Lewis and the Adding Machine," Printers' Ink
- (1911) J. W. T. Knox, "Lewis - Builder of Business," The Caxton
- (1914) A. N. Marquis, The Book of Detroiters.
- (1916) Who's Who in Advertising.