Again She Orders – "A Chicken Salad, Please"

{{Short description|1921 advertisement}}

File:Again She Orders A Chicken Salad Please original magazine article.jpg

"Again She Orders – 'A Chicken Salad, Please'{{-"}} is a 1921 advertisement for the two-volume Book of Etiquette. Both the book and the advertising campaign were written by American author and advertising copywriter Lillian Eichler Watson while still a teen.

Eichler was hired by Ruthrauf & Ryan in 1919.{{Cite book|last=Watkins|first=Julian Lewis|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/891222|title=The 100 greatest advertisements, who wrote them and what they did.|date=1949|publisher=Moore Pub. Co.|location=New York|pages=66–67|language=English|oclc=891222}} One of her first assignments was to write an advertisement selling the remaining copies of the pre-1900 Encyclopedia of Etiquette by Eleanor Holt. Her campaign was so successful that the original book's publisher, Doubleday, asked her to rewrite the book and create a campaign for the updated version.{{Cite book|last=Claridge|first=Laura P.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/191922875|title=Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners|date=2008|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-0-375-50921-6|edition=1st|location=New York|page=263|oclc=191922875}}

Eichler created the advertisement for the revised book, retitled The Book of Etiquette.{{Cite book|last=Sivulka|first=Juliann|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wpTMZwVKPAsC&dq=%22lillian+eichler+watson%22+copywriter&pg=PA112|title=Ad Women: How They Impact What We Need, Want, and Buy|publisher=Prometheus Books|year=2012|isbn=978-1-61592-068-6|pages=112|language=en}} The advertisement portrayed the plight of a young woman who, on a date with a man she wants to impress, doesn't know how to order dinner in a fancy restaurant, which Victor Schwab said was effective because it "capsulized a common and embarrassing situation".{{Cite book|last=Schwab|first=Victor O|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/36034794|title=How to write a good advertisement: a short course in copywriting|date=1962|publisher=Wilshire Book Co.|isbn=|location=No. Hollywood, Calif.|pages=75,162|language=English|oclc=36034794}}

{{Blockquote|text="A Chicken Salad, Please." She hears herself give the order as in a daze. She hears him repeat the order to the waiter, in a rather surprised tone. Why had she ordered that again! This was the third time she had ordered chicken salad while dining with him.}}{{Blockquote|text=He would think she didn't know how to order a dinner. Well, did she? No.}}

The advertisement has been described as "sensationally successful"{{Cite book|last1=Worstell|first1=Robert C.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LQKqBgAAQBAJ&q=%22lillian+eichler+watson%22+copywriter|title=How to Write a Good Ad - Masters of Marketing Secrets: A Short Course In Copywriting|last2=Schwab|first2=Victor O.|date=2014-05-30|publisher=|isbn=978-1-312-10023-7|language=en}}{{Rp|page=173}} and has been included in Julian Watkins's The 100 Greatest Advertisements in its dozens of editions from the first in 1949 through the most recent in 2013.{{Cite book|last=Watkins|first=Julian Lewis|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/13868567|title=The 100 Greatest Advertisements: Who Wrote Them and What They Did|date=2013|publisher=Dover Publications|isbn=978-0-486-20540-3|edition=2nd|location=New York|oclc=13868567}}{{rp|67}} Schwab in 1962 noted that the ad was "so noteworthy and memorable" that the headline was still part of everyday speech.

The "chicken-salad girl" became a national reference point. Other headlines from the campaign were often quoted as well, including "What's Wrong in This Picture?", "Why I Cried After the Ceremony", "May She Invite Him into the House?", and "Suppose This Happened on Your Wedding Day?"