by AdamHat

Created on: February 21, 2009

On the Description of New England by John Smith as a Fundamental Document in Explaining Modern Day Economics and Marketing

Amidst the eager exploration of the New World by the Spanish, French, and Englishincluding their relationships and quarrels with the savagesCaptain John Smith's Description of New England had a profound effect. While each explorer was preoccupied with their own (and their king/queen's) agenda, Smith recorded a land of plenty that wasn't just for the royal family's gain, but rather, an opportunity for the entire commonwealth to share in this fertile territory. Smith employs a variety of promotional tactics so exclusive and definite thatin studyingone could parallel today's advertising techniques to Smith's work much like the contemporary scholar applies Aristotle's Poetics to modern literature. Although an explorer, Smith speaks through layman's terms, and invokes multiple advertising methods still commonly in use today: (1) emotional appeal, (2) statistical data, (3) plain speak. By uniting an assortment of appeals, Smith develops a successful promotional tract worth scholars' attention both historically and practically in terms of marketing and publicity theory still used today.

Smith integrates constant Edenic imagery throughout his text, providing a comfortable comparison for the families back in England curious of the fertility in the New Land. Given the common biblical grounds, the images provide an exceedingly easy medium to describe the beauty of New England. Clean rivers become "the waters are most pure" (150), and rich soil becomes, "the ground is so fertill" (142) to better resemblance the Garden. While explaining this fruitful land, Smith definitely understands the importance of the public image, a twenty-first century advertising concept. Today, top brands claim that when you purchase their product, you are not a customer but a friend of the company building a relationship. This branch of marketing, positioning, is a method Smith evokes when he remains perpetually worried and conscious of what the general public will know of his enterprise and the image of the New World as seen through his text.

Once Smith establishes the New World as a poetically scenic environment, he continues a step further establishing the safety and reliability of his product using the voice of experience and expertise. Who better than an explorer to testify for the quality of a new territory? Smith capitalizes on that thought saying, "who can but approove

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