Video restored. It was an early 1990s sensation that made a fortune with DRTV spots. And it all started with an oddball inventor. … [Continue reading]
From a Kookie Bass Fisherman’s Invention to $100 Million a Year in Sales
MAGIC Headline? “Get Paid” + “Lose Weight” = BIG Trouble
What's the difference between certain COMBINATIONS of words that COMMAND a prospect's attention... and those that fall on deaf ears? It's a question that should fascinate anyone in the game of copywriting and direct marketing. RKG ran thousands … [Continue reading]
Harvard Graduate’s Vocabulary in just 15 minutes a day!
Verbal Advantage was a force to be reckoned with. They mastered the driver of the PRESTIGE appeal in advertising. Here's one of their turn of the century full page ads in the nationally published, Newsweek magazine. … [Continue reading]
“Like me… You can make really BIG MONEY at home watching TV — or just reading your daily newspaper!”
Just look at the composite words of this headline: You... BIG MONEY... home... TV. … [Continue reading]
Double Page Spread for a $3,200 Skin Cream?
$4,997 for a newsletter subscription... $3,200 for a skin cream... $4,000 for an anti-aging supplement... $9,990 for a power supply backup... And cosmetic dentistry that makes them all look like bargains. Whether you're marketing … [Continue reading]
23 Years And Counting… for THIS Anti-Aging Headline (And the POWER of the Question Mark)
I've done my share of tours in the anti-aging market and have seen (and written) almost every advertising lead out there. To the outsider, a claim like "... Takes 10 Years Off Your Face in Just 10 Minutes" sounds fanciful to the point of … [Continue reading]
$299 Billion Firm’s LIGHTNING Lead Generation
The days of Fisher Investments' glorious lead generation ads in print are over—the readership is gone. But don’t think for a second these full-page ads lack the gusto you need to build a database to the cosmos. … [Continue reading]
“Leicester Takes Precast Concrete to Heart” (1990’s Development Ad UPDATED)
Claude Hopkins, eat your heart out. When Claude Hopkins was hired by Schlitz, he toured the brewery and noticed the purification process: the beer was steam-cleaned, the bottles were sterilized, and the water was filtered through layers of wood … [Continue reading]
David Ogilvy “5 Tool” Advertising Copywriter
The mark of a GREAT advertising copywriter is versatility. Admittedly, that's hard to pull off nowadays with the intense pressures to specialize, driven by steep competition. And realistically, you wouldn't expect your average copywriter to churn … [Continue reading]
“If alcohol is your problem, the next few minutes may change your life”
Most self-help marketers today have little idea about the treasure trove of ad copy that sold untold thousands of books and courses... long before the Web. Here's an ad that ran in 1972 for the book, Games Alcoholics Play. The ad does justice to … [Continue reading]
Monetizing Your List When Your Subscribers Fly the Coop (January 2025 Hybrid Reactivation-Penny Pitch)
No rented list comes even close to the response-producing power of your own list—aka your house file—whether you've got fifty or five million names in your database. … [Continue reading]
“Save the house we were born in. Or plan the funeral.” (1980 Fundraising Ad Hollywood Style)
Long before crowdfunding, print was the go-to medium for on-the-fly fundraising. Nostalgia is a big appeal in this ad underpinned by urgency. It presented the potential fate of an important historical film studio, the original Lasky-DeMille … [Continue reading]
Prince Karim Khan’s Killer Copy (“The Costa Smeralda will never be a tripper’s paradise”)
In 1962, Prince Karim Aga Khan IV envisioned Costa Smeralda (in Northern Sardinia) as an exclusive destination for the well-to-do. By 1968, he and a consortium of investors had pumped £30 million into the project including high priced ad … [Continue reading]
“How thousands doubled their money with Prudential”
Maybe Prudential plc, founded in London in 1848, doesn't leap to mind when you think of financial copywriting. But this lead generation ad for Prudential Investment Bond almost reads like a business opportunity ad at first. This is excellent … [Continue reading]
“Retire… and Get Paid to Travel!”
Here's a loaded headline. It's reminiscent of leads like: "Get paid to lose weight" and “The Perfect Retirement Business.” … [Continue reading]
What is Suzanne Miller’s Secret? (Bygone Biz-Op Files)
Who's ever heard of a 2,000-word, full page business opportunity ad in a mainstream newspaper? Okay, I've got kids in the household who've only heard of a newspaper because they've got a throwback for a father. But if you wound the time machine … [Continue reading]
Proof Element Packed Prostate Pitch
Here's a current (January 2025) men's health pitch that runs the gamut of claims. I wondered, a la the Hunza and the origin marketing approach, has the advertiser tested this as a lead? It has a greater array of proof elements than similar … [Continue reading]
Faux Issue for “Louis Rukeyser’s Wall Street” Post 9/11
This "faux issue"—made to look like a standard newsletter or magazine—mailed just after 9/11. The former control with the headline "The Smartest Way to Get Rich on Wall Street" was written by KCI's in-house copywriter, Dan Moser and mailed for … [Continue reading]
Who’s Ever Heard of a 10 YEAR Control for an Investment Newsletter? (On the Late, Great Jim Rutz)
Keeping an alternative health control in the mail for 10 years and longer? Not a problem! But a direct mail package for an investment newsletter? Now that's something to write home about. A-List extraordinaire copywriter, Jim Rutz, was … [Continue reading]
“…only ONE Person may get the opportunity to be in business with us, on an exclusive basis, with NINE different streams of income…”
This is a textbook AREA exclusive, high ticket offer from back when GKIC was in the heat of promoting local chapters for sale. Essentially they were locally based "clones" of the Glazer-Kennedy Insider's Circle business. … [Continue reading]
Selling Beethoven By the BOATLOAD
Time-Life's Beethoven Bicentennial Collection was such a smash it sold by the boatload in the bicentennial year of Beethoven's birth in 1970. And it continued selling like mad in 1971... 1972... all the way through 1977. … [Continue reading]
The Dark Side of Correspondence Schools (Famous Schools, Inc.)
Jessica Mitford did for correspondence schools what Upton Sinclair did for the meatpacking industry in her exposé entitled Let Us Now Appraise Famous Writers, revealing the dark side behind the mail order money machine known as the Famous Schools. … [Continue reading]
“Why I Will Pay You $4,768 To Cancel Your Subscription Right Now” (High Ticket Selling)
Do you want to learn how to really sell a HIGH TICKET product? Sell a LEGACY program. What's a legacy program? Here's a crystal clear passage of copy explaining it: … [Continue reading]
“KILLERS!”
How's this for an interesting business development (slash) freelance ad from yesteryear? This one hails from the back pages of Backstage from 1983. You can clearly see the Ralph and Shoshana Ginzburg influence in this ad. One of the all time … [Continue reading]
“You Can Trust Me… I Am LING!” (Why UGLY Works)
Direct mail guru Bob Hacker was one of the first to proclaim "Ugly works!" Its corollary? … [Continue reading]
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