Caples on Copy, published in 1978, was part of the brilliant “The Wall Street Journal. It Works.” campaign. This print ad is like getting a bite size version of Tested Advertising Methods. (Note: the 4th edition or earlier of that book is the way … [Continue reading]
Almost everything this publisher mails is evocative of Lyle Stuart's maxim about direct mail being THE medium for "making money in the dark." What's the opposite of "money in the dark?" There's no better example (and warning!) than this case … [Continue reading]
I'll level with you, . This entry isn't so much about my love of book advertising... Or my occasional zeal for polemics... No, here's the real reason. … [Continue reading]
Here's an insertion from Royal National Lifeboat Institution in The Field, originally billed as "the country gentleman’s newspaper." … [Continue reading]
This was posted on the penultimate day of 2022, December 30th. This tabloid newspaper is mailing in late 2022 and is a typical penny stock promotion. There's a sufficient number of entries on this site to give you a flavor of this market and … [Continue reading]
I guess this is the counterpart headline to “Do NOT deposit another dollar in your bank account until you read THIS book!” This lead has a strong track record of winning readership. And Newsmax excels in this much shrunken space of marketing … [Continue reading]
There's a reason KLM, the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands, stuck with David Ogilvy and his merry band of ad wizards. Imagine an American traveler contemplating a trip to Europe in the 1970s, two decades before the Web. There were travel … [Continue reading]
Too late for those inclined to get out their pitchforks over the "class-bound" name of this 125-year old British aid society. The "Old Gray Lady" hammered the Distressed Gentlefolk's Aid Association in a 1989 article entitled "Lifting a Pinkie for … [Continue reading]
As I'm typing this, on December 22, 2022, the weather headline of the day in North America reads: "Bomb cyclone and Arctic blast put 300 million under weather alerts" It's cold, dang cold, -24 degrees in Calgary, Alberta. What better ad to … [Continue reading]
If you've been a subscriber here for a while... You surely know who this advertiser is. While their last newspaper insertion occurred on April 24, 2020 in the Wall Street Journal... It's hard to say good-bye to the medium that brought them … [Continue reading]
Here's an ad for the sequel to the million-copy bestseller Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. The 95 year old Betty Edwards IS the brand. Frankly, I miss old school print ads like this, especially in the realms of self-help and creative … [Continue reading]
Here's a BOLD promo running through the mail chutes of America from a larger than life vaquero... originally from the northern burbs of Baltimore... familiar to everyone in direct response. It's dark. It's gloomy. It's doomy. … [Continue reading]
Viviscal is a BIG brand in hair that's been around since 1998. The company's flagship product has been hair growth tablets, but it's diversified into a full-fledged product line including shampoos and leave-in elixirs. This insertion is a … [Continue reading]
Here's a collaborative project (of sorts) from two of my heroes: Gary Bencivenga and Marty Edelston. … [Continue reading]
Upton Sinclair: wrote in I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked. "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” … [Continue reading]
- Farmers' Almanac - The Guinness Book of Records - Bottom Line Yearbook Great publications have widely anticipated annual editions. … [Continue reading]
This is surely one the greatest gems I gleaned at Gary Bencivenga's Retirement Seminar... sitting right up there in the third row on the left. If you cue up your DVD set, I'm easy to spot. Okay, it was really one of a hundred plus gems and … [Continue reading]
Here's another DM package from the sweet spot of business development and self-help. The old school of direct mail marketing is exemplified with the ever present: … [Continue reading]
It feels like only yesterday that I was standing atop the Saint Regis Roof and Penthouse chatting with the great Carline Anglade-Cole and the "Brazilian Jujitsu chiro copywriter" during Gary Ben's Retirement Seminar in May 2005. Pardon the … [Continue reading]
How many times do you reckon the 122 year-old Jeanne Calment has been used as a proof element for longevity in alternative health marketing? I'll go out on a limb and say DOZENS. As copywriters and marketers we can take NOTHING for … [Continue reading]
Newspaper print may be on its way out, , but the TECHNIQUE of print will always be with us because human nature is unchanging. Shhhh! Don't tell the transhumanists. … [Continue reading]
There's a surprising thing about the FREE STUFF and "save money" category in direct response. It's not just pensioners or those on fixed income that relish secret ways of saving money or getting free stuff. … [Continue reading]
Here's another WINNER in print from the "Save Money" category of direct response. It wouldn't be a stretch to redub it the FREE STUFF category in 2023. The book sold fabulously well be print from 2005-2011. J.D. is one of the all-time great … [Continue reading]
Here's a hot "free plus shipping" from Newsmax. It's in the same mold as "The Ultimate Hyperinflation Defense Manual," even bleaker on the gloom & doom spectrum. … [Continue reading]
Read this ad 50 years after it first ran, ... And be amazed at the CRACKING copy... the POPPING persuasion... the pièce de résistance of research. Yes, this is one of those legendary "Ogilvy Orchestrations" that helped propel Merrill Lynch into … [Continue reading]