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Ah, Las Vegas… only marketing conferences and children’s chess tournaments ever bring me there these days.

But I vividly remember wandering around the bustling Electronic Retail Association conference at the Wynn in 2011.

Matthew Lesko, the infomercial star and government grant guru, strolled the halls in his trademark florescent suit, studded with question marks…

Gregg Renker, co-founder of the heavyweight Guthy-Renker, pressed the flesh with attendees with coffee in hand…

Everyone was on the hunt for the next Snuggie, the sleeved blanket that racked up $400 million in sales… [Continue reading]

Explore 3 millennia of genius…

If you live in North America, you've surely bumped into this company's display ads, catalogs, print insertions or radio ads. Here's their 44 giant pages of course creation copywriting if you missed it. There's no topic of academic interest that … [Continue reading]

“‘Invest’ 30 Days in This Personality Makeover, It Works!”

"SNAP! Change Your Personality in 30 Days" is a pretty whimsical title, even for a big-promise self-help book. While the ad copy for this offer is classic book advertising... any 20th Century advertiser would recognize... the goal is loftier, as … [Continue reading]

More Lead Gen Lessons from Littleton Coin

If you ever find lead-gen boring, you're not paying attention. Because there are countless markets in direct response and an infinite variety of lead magnets. And sometimes you can learn more from a direct response player OUTSIDE your normal … [Continue reading]

5,400 Years of Fighting SERIOUS Dark Circles!

The Sumerian invention of cuneiform tablets was in widespread use as far back as 3400 B.C. Initially, its purpose was for keeping accounts and records of business transactions, but later it developed into a full fledged writing system. And … [Continue reading]

Little Known Referral Letter from Gary Halbert (Business Development)

Many are familiar with Gary's two-step, "Hot New Reports" lead gen ad which ran in BIG media, like The Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal. But most have never bumped into his complete referral letter to the friends and colleagues of his … [Continue reading]

Massive Maths Membership Model

What can I say? I'm as partial to British English as I am to alliteration... so maths it is. You could just as easily call this Direct Response Vs. Everything Else. Math Magic was classic winning direct response advertising. … [Continue reading]

“Peaches so sweet flavorful and uncontrollably juicy you must eat them over the sink!”

Here we've got some sublime food copy -- either from Gary Bencivenga himself or from David Rosengarten his student -- for the short lived "Rosengarten’s Fruit-of-the-Month Club" from 2005. … [Continue reading]

Jeff Paul’s Greatest Story Selling Ad… and What’s Become of Him

This direct mail package might as well have been written a lifetime ago, instead of the the early to late 2000s, when it mailed heavily. Look at all that's changed. … [Continue reading]

“A Teen’s Tragic Death in Dryer Fire…” (The Power of Demonstration)

Here's some classic two-step advertising in the form of a compact 1/18 of a page advertorial - this ad is picking up steam in late 2025. The tragic news headline and body copy almost feel like a public service ad - and that's why it works. … [Continue reading]

“Giving away steak dinners… and raking in the profits”

I've been honored to know a lot of great direct response friends and colleagues over the years. … [Continue reading]

Cheat Death (Dimensionalization Done Right)

This magalog has all the hallmarks of a Clayton Makepeace piece! I'll go out on a limb and say he's the copywriter. This deck copy is a textbook example of dimensionalization in alternative health copy. The "normal" approach would be citing some … [Continue reading]

“Do you have any of these coins in your pocket?”

What a great lead with a WIDE fishing net... ready to pull in almost any reader. You can certainly see the influence of Paul Michael's amazingly evergreen, “How You Can Make a Killing in Coins” in this direct mail package. Few writers can … [Continue reading]

A Powerful Headline Response Rocket (Claim in Time Frame)

I'm a sucker for response boosters like this that have stood the test of time. And these ads, from Dow Theory Forecasts, ran by the THOUSANDS in the 1960s and 1970s. Why were they so successful and why do some direct mail advertisers use it as … [Continue reading]

BUILDS STRONG INFO-BUSINESSES 12 WAYS

Here's a seminar marketing classic from Dan Kennedy and company from the halcyon days of the info summits. What can you learn from this package? Building a BIG, familiar, over-arching THEME that ties everything together... and makes for one FUN … [Continue reading]

“Mind Control Goes Mainstream, Artificial Intelligence Takes Control of U.S. Population, and You Don’t Even Know It’s Happening”

This pitch strikes a dark, dystopian tone, warning of AI as a runaway force enabling surveillance, manipulation, and elite control, while urging readers to brace for upheaval and act quickly. Bringing to mind the countless “Are we the baddies?” … [Continue reading]

“101 Best Ways For Men To Get Healthy”

Here's a package that brings the teaser copy in spades. … [Continue reading]

A STUPID Mistake That Cost an Advertiser $300,000… by the New York Attorney General

How could any self-respecting ad archivist resist this swipe in a case study that cost an advertiser $300 k? You've likely run into A Little Mistake That Cost a Farmer $3,000 Each Year in Victor Schwab's classic house ad spread 100 Good … [Continue reading]

Jewish Adman Swipes a Catholic Saint? “7 Deadly Advertising Mistakes”

Thomas Aquinas systematized the Seven Deadly Sins — the vitia capitalia (“capital sins”) — in the Summa Theologica in the 13th century. Pride, lust, anger, covetousness, envy, sloth, and gluttony. (PLACES-G, for the catechism test next … [Continue reading]

It Takes 9 YEARS to Announce the Losing Lottery Numbers

A colleague commented after seeing this direct mail piece: "People really respond to cr*p like this?" My reply: "Let's not forget, thousands gave Bernie billions." The point is that anyone get "taken" at any time -- you and I included. … [Continue reading]

A Million Dollar FINDER’S FEE for Connecting the Dots… And Knowing How to Sell!

Four years ago (February of 2021) I had a conversation with a marketer/product developer who's in his eighth (8th!) decade in the marketing game. He ran into someone who had a factory filled with product he couldn't move... because he didn't know … [Continue reading]

“I couldn’t ask my mother these questions!” (The TESTING Titans of Rodale Press)

It's hard to excel upon the book advertising Rodale Press churned out in the 1990s. The most striking thing about Rodale ads a quarter century later is both the products AND the advertising seem just as relevant today. The evergreen title The … [Continue reading]

If I Had Only ONE Supplements Magalog on a Desert Island

Here's a 64-page Slim Jim from the mighty NutriHealth, who once stood at the top of the hill of direct mail marketing. A Slim Jim, as you may know, is a more compact and narrower version of a magalog, which of course resembles a magazine. Even … [Continue reading]

“What has this man discovered about the ‘secret games’ people play that has made his book the surprise bestseller of the year?”

Games People Play rode the self-help wave that surged through the 1960s. Selling over five million copies and translated into twenty languages, the book became a cultural phenomenon. … [Continue reading]

“One Weird Trick” for REVIVING “Clickbait” Subject Lines That SELL!

Let's hop in a capsule and head back in time a decade to the "underbelly" of direct response around 2010. And let's explore one headline-subject line in particular. Yes, I'm talking about the "One Weird Trick" that was the topic of both … [Continue reading]