Durstine wrote constantly. Over the course of his career, he published three books as well as a number of articles appearing in national magazines, and various organizational publications. The following overview of his published works is by no means exhaustive, but should offer a satisfactory summary of his major works.

Books

Durstine's first book, Making Advertisements, And Making Them Pay, was published in 1920. The book opens with the, now famous, line, "Advertising came into the world because men were too impatient for Mrs. Jones to tell Mrs. Smith that Brown's pickles were good to eat." The chapters that follow summarize Durstine's view of the infant advertising industry, as well as present numerous reproductions of some of his favorite advertisements. Several images from the book have been included herein.

Although Durstine had a passion for advertisements which featured long copy, he understood the balance between copy and visual. In fact, the first section of Making Advertisements, which is dedicated to the question of whether to first write copy, or create a visual when making an ad, ultimately offers the advice that ad making is essentially a process of creative visualization, in which copy and visual come together to create a strong message.

In a later section, Durstine suggests that, to get "out of the rut" of cliche, ineffective advertising, ad makers should speak honestly and openly about the products and services they are advertising, a message which many advertising professionals repeat today. Many of Durstine's favorite ads are those which treat an impersonal product in a very human way.

A section entitled, "Atmosphere," expresses Durstine's view that "appearance is everything." From advertisements themselves, to professional attire and bearing, Durstine felt that appearance must be paid attention to, more so in advertising than in any other field.

Durstine's view of the emerging field of psychology was negative, to say the least. He writes, "Fortunately, the excessive use of the word psychology is dying out, chiefly because most people used it to be impressive when what they meant was common sense." It is interesting to note however, that later sections of the same book cite psychological evidence in order to support Durstine's own beliefs. This apparent contradiction may be resolved through the notion that Durstine wasn't so much anti-psychology as he was against the use of firm rules to guide the creation of advertisements. To a certain extent, Durstine viewed psychology as contributing the the creation of such a set of rules.

In the final sections of Making Advertisements, Durstine offers words of inspiration to future generations of advertising professionals. He states the importance of building professional relationships with clients, as well as establishing a code of ethical conduct.

Durstine's second book, This Advertising Business, was published in 1928. The volume can be seen as an extension, and development of his first book, in that it attempts to do very much the same thing: convince the reader that advertising works, and help him/her understand a little bit about how it works.

Durstine makes a strong case for advertising as an essential part of mass marketing. He attempts to explain the mechanics of the inner workings of an advertising agency, and then goes on to explain, on a case by case basis, why advertising works in some cases, and doesn't work in others.

In fact, much of Durstine's thinking on why advertising sometimes doesn't work, can be seen as anticipatory of the much later developing, Integrated Marketing Communication approach. Durstine suggests that advertising alone cannot create sales, but that it is an integral part of an overall marketing strategy.

The final section of This Advertising Business, is dedicated to radio, still an infant medium in 1928. In this section Durstine explains the psychological impact of radio, and proclaims its awesome power to persuade. But in the end, he reiterates his firm belief that radio advertisements, like their print counterparts, must be honest to be effective.

Durstine's third book, Red Thunder, was published in 1934 after he traveled through Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. The book opens with, "How do they look and act in Russia and Germany and Austria? What is it like over there?" What follows is an extremely insightful and tolerant depiction of worlds outside of Durstine's frame of reference. For example, one chapter is devoted entirely to the fact that the Soviet Society is completely without trademarks, or advertisements. However, rather than writing the Russian's off as fools, which one might expect a prominent ad man to do, Durstine thoughtfully examines the implications of such a system, apparently more in awe of the differences, than critical of them.

As always, Durstine uses his knowledge of media to enhance his analysis of every situation. For example, when in Nazi Germany, Durstine noted, "Those who have worked with radio know that there are some personalities which project themselves through a microphone and some which do not...Hitler's voice has that ability."

Articles:

In 1925, Durstine wrote an article entitled, "Advertising Works -- But Not Magic" in Nation's Business magazine. The article's main concern is that advertising not be viewed as something apart from business, but rather as a part of business. He writes, "Good advertising is really an integral part of a business. It isn't something to please the president like putting his picture on the letterhead. It isn't a rabbit's foot in the pocket of every salesman. It isn't something to provide a job for the boss' nephew."

Durstine also criticizes those who would believe that all one need do is put a few ads in the paper and wait for the orders to come rolling in. Again, he states the importances of advertising as an aspect of marketing.

In the article, Durstine tells a story, now fairly widely retold, in which a hat company which offers hundreds of different styles and colors is able to dramatically increase sales by advertising only one hat. The essence of the story is connected to Durstine's view of effective advertising as delivering a strong, singular message.

The article is quintessential Durstine, in the sense that it is dedicated to trying to help people understand how advertising works, and it is written in a casual, narrative style. In a sense, the article laid the groundwork for a 1928 article Durstine would write which would attempt to establish the fact that advertising not only helps companies communicate with consumers, but it also helps stimulate demand.

Durstine's second article for Nation's Business, "The Machine That Creates Desire" was published in 1928. This article is substantially longer than the earlier one, and in it, Durstine makes numerous points about the nature of the advertising business.

In his opening, Durstine seeks to clarify for the reader the different job roles which advertising encompasses. He lists three primary categories of advertising work: 1) "...those who devote their time to selling the advertising pages of publishers," 2) "...those constantly employed by one advertiser," and 3) "...advertising agencies."

Durstine also brings up the fact that often a firm's ability to manufacture has out paced its local market's ability to consume. He then explains how advertising agencies solve this problem by, "...opening up new markets for the advertiser and...creating and maintaining new advertisers for the publisher." He then points out that 90% of all advertising appearing in national magazines and newspapers is prepared by advertising agencies.

Finally, Durstine welcomes the Harvard Business School's, "...new method of teaching what advertising is and how to apply it correctly."

In 1932, Durstine wrote a chapter entitled, "Management" in Alden James' book, Careers in Advertising. In it, Durstine suggests that you can recognize an ad man by the, "slightly tired, patient alertness," in his eyes.

In the chapter, Durstine recommends certain business practices to future advertising agency managers. He recommends that managers not hesitate to run credit checks on all perspective clients. He also recommends that an agency never offer "special discounts" on any grounds, claiming that, "profits in the agency business are too narrow to build a permanent success on less than full rates." He also recommends against doing spec. work to win accounts.

In the end, Durstine offers the advice, "When everything is said and done, there is nothing in management's function so important as the human factor. Creative people are individualists, and it takes creative people to make a successful advertising agency."