About a week after publishing "My Copywriting 'Blasphemies' Against Eugene Schwartz" I stumbled upon this ad. As Michael Corleone grunts in The Godfather Part III: "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!" And so it was for this … [Continue reading]
The Penny Stock Fortunes package mailed for years in the same #10 envelope. It boasted some of the most effective envelope teaser copy in the direct mail world at the time in 2013. Is Obama Terrified of the "Secret $200 Retirement Blueprint"? … [Continue reading]
Here's a textbook silver coin pitch in the obligatory "official" carrier. And I almost pitched it in the waste basket. It was one of those days to quote Robert Oren: "There are days when it takes all you’ve got just to keep up with the losers.” … [Continue reading]
Just kidding about the Sample A. Sample, . You'll notice that's the name of the addressee for this Bottom Line Personal promotion. This GIANT tabloid goes all the way back to 1999... and of course there's plenty of obsolete content like: … [Continue reading]
Those of us in marketing, advertising and business have one thing in common. One way or another, eventually we deal with the frailty of the human condition. This ad is a mini masterclass in it. … [Continue reading]
Recently, I stumbled across this remarkable print ad and asked myself the question: "How'd this ad get into my possession?" Then it hit me. Surely, this full page ad was no "mere mortal" ad. I reached for the 520-page transcript from the … [Continue reading]
This financial lead generation took the world of print by storm in 1974. I'm virtually certain it's the work of copywriting legend, Dan Rosenthal. This 330 word ad was so successful at sucking out red hot leads in the silver market -- it had … [Continue reading]
Talk about politically incorrect advertising! This tiny advertorial ran hundreds of times until the FTC came down on the advertiser like a ton of bricks. Here's a mini case study of one the most popular diet products that suddenly imploded due … [Continue reading]
Several years ago, the world famous marketing consultant Jay Abraham called. Yes, that marketing consultant and preeminent business development engineer extraordinaire -- the world's most expensive consultant, also the one who's "afraid to fly" on … [Continue reading]
Link corrected. Here's a good old wealth creation pitch for the Seven Years to Seven Figures System. It wasn't so long ago when pitches like these weren't a dime a dozen and the only channel for such promotions was via direct … [Continue reading]
In some areas, things have changed more in a year than they have in forty years. Take seminar marketing. Platform sellers know that having warm bodies in a room they must TRAVEL to get to... beats an ocean of remote souls on a Zoom conference, … [Continue reading]
"Caveat emptor" is Latin for "let the buyer beware!" But this applies DOUBLY so if you're a seller or marketer. Caveat venditor! Let me explain. … [Continue reading]
This Norwegian American Cruises ad had all the high profile insertions in publications like Vogue and Town & Country. It's easy to see why this hardy lead generation ad made waves... and filled cruise ships. "Cruise on the … [Continue reading]
I'm a fan of contradictions. Are you? This supplements advertiser got nailed by the FTC for unsubstantiated advertising claims... to the tune of $61,100,000. Sixty-One Million One Hundred Thousand Dollars! That extra hundred thousand is … [Continue reading]
This envelope package from National Collector's Mint, Inc. for a perennial BIG numismatic draw -- original Morgan Silver Dollars -- has been mailing steadily for over two years and trudges on in mid 2024. This package is the epitome of the … [Continue reading]
There are actually a small handful of supplements ads sill alive and kicking at the time of this writing in November of 2024. I've been writing about the trend of the death of printed newspaper in the USA for a while. … [Continue reading]
The UK based Writer's Bureau was the brainchild of Ernest and Susan Metcalfe in the late 1980s. … [Continue reading]
Book of the Month Club, Time-Life, Reader's Digest, Columbia House and Newsweek Books... Who cares about dinosaurs like these? Marketers who know the value of history that's who. Before social media... before the Web... … [Continue reading]
Have you read your share of "the death of (blank)" proclamations over the years? This one happens to be accurate. Dr. Al Sears has been dubbed the "last man standing" in newspaper print advertising countless times here. That's because of the … [Continue reading]
The power of this headline resonates over one hundred years after this ad first ran in June of 1922 in Red Book Magazine. Bruce Barton was likely the copywriter, who also served as a faculty member for the entity founded by Joseph French Johnson, … [Continue reading]
This was a long mailing package with plentiful testing. Agora Financial is long gone, but packages like this are still instructive. (Caveat emptor! Always make sure your copy is compliant via a qualified advertising attorney.) This mailing's … [Continue reading]
Perhaps, it's a tad hyperbolic calling Health Resources the "ultimate" supplements brand, sold by direct mail. But for my money, Health Resources had it all. - Powerhouse products prospects couldn't get enough of - Direct mail copy that took … [Continue reading]
Suli Go was the right woman... at the right time... with the right positioning... at the right LOCATION. Here's another model advertorial that had numerous insertions in the LA Times as a half page vertical in 1998. It strikes the right balance … [Continue reading]
Here's one hot off the presses in November 2024. It's the 24 page magalog for: … [Continue reading]
What bolder and darker headline would you expect from a newsletter entitled Inflation Survival Letter... And fittingly in all caps no less? … [Continue reading]