Direct Response Copywriting Swipe File

This ad was written by one of the all-time “naturals” of direct response copywriting,  Dr. Ernest Weckesser.

What’s unique about him is he had no ad agency or direct marketing background but was a university professor at the time he jumped into the direct response game.

Though this ad was written 32 years ago, it’s infinitely more sophisticated than 90% of biz-op ads today.

You can find out more about him via this link, as well as enlarge the thumb at the left to a full size PDF.

How do you sell a $14,615 piece of exercise equipment by space advertising?

Rom of North Hollywood, CA has the answer.

Week after week, year after year, this offer and copy have been bringing home the bacon.

You can download the PDF by clicking on the thumbnail to the left.

Ad man, Julian Watkins surveyed 50 top advertising personalities in search of candidate ads for his book, The 100 Greatest Advertisements.

The Penalty of Leadership, a space ad for the Cadillac Motor Car Company, was written by Theodore MacManus and was on every single list as an outstanding advertising example.

Supposedly, both Cadillac and the agency, MacManus, John & Adams, received almost weekly requests for a copy of The Penalty of Leadership over thirty years after it was written.

Click on the thumbnail to download a PDF of The Penalty of Leadership.

This ad was written by Max Sackheim in 1928 for the self-help course du jour, “Scientific Mind Training” by The Pelman Institute of America.

This super successful offer paired with Max Sackheim’s hyper-testing methodology resulted in dozens of unique, full-page space ads for the same course.

It’s a terrific ad in the self-improvement area even through today’s direct response lens.

The Gambler

He gambles that a “lucky break” will come to him in – the course of time [Read more…] about Maxwell Sackheim Ad #32: The Pelman Institute of America

Here’s an interesting space ad which has been making the rounds for the last few months.

The headline, “How Does This 69-Year-Old Doctor Have The Body Of a 30-Year-Old?” stops the reader in his tracks and the photo pays it off with a startling proof element.

The benefits are something almost every well-to-do senior would jump for:

* Decreased Risk of Age-Related Disease
* Improved Muscle Tone
* Decreased Body Fat
* Increased Energy
* Sharper Thinking
* Increased Libido

A 69-year-old boasting 10% body fat surely makes most 30-year-olds envious and the reader wants to know how he’s done it.

Another convincing proof element found in the copy is the statement: “At Cenegenics, patients are successful business people and professionals. In fact, more than 1,500 of their 15,000 patients worldwide are physicians and their families.”

This ad was written 89 years ago by 21-year-old copywriter, Victor Schwab, who now firmly belongs to the Pantheon of great advertising people of the 20th Century.

This example reminds us that great advertising is timeless.

Schwab laser targets his audience and dangles a realizable promise in front of them.

It’s sobering for fledgling ad writers today to see such direct response sophistication from a 21-year -old in the year  1919.

The results-based testimonials trump most that we encounter today.

$100 in 1919 translates to about $1,200 today.

To save the PDF to your hard drive, right click on the image and choose either “Save Target As” or “Save Link As.”

Here is an interesting advertorial-style, skin cream ad (Hydroxatone) that’s making the rounds. Click on the image for the 517 KB PDF.

Is home study marketing the wave of the future?

It’s got a few things going for it.

First, it plays to the “cocooning” behavior that happens during economic downturns. The term became popular during the last major recession of the 1990’s.

Second, the idea of self-improvement and retraining strikes a mass cord during such cycles.

Third, home study courses have a high degree of inelasticity and can easily command hundreds to thousands of dollars. A “home study course” purchase is a lot easier to justify to one’s spouse than a mere few DVD’s and some manuals.

This was a popular insertion for Columbia University Home Study Courses from the 1920’s.

This ad hails from direct response powerhouse, Ben Suarez.

It was written in the 1970’s, yet it captures the essence of the business opportunity market, even today.

People are still looking for someone that’ll take them by the hand and give them the secret to getting rich.

Everything is textbook in this ad from the headline to the product title, Recipe To Riches, to the hot-button subtleties like in this line:

“Even if your results are bringing you millions of dollars in sales, you can still work out of your own home with just a few members of your family and some friends.”

With unemployment spiking and whole sectors vaporizing, like mortgages, real estate and finance, we may be in for a boom in biz-op advertising like we’ve never seen, including sophisticated ads with high price points for ex-Wall Street people.

Interestingly, the core concept of this book eventually transformed into the landmark work, 7 Steps to Freedom II: How to Escape the American Rat Race, in which Ben Suarez presents in great depth, his Net Profit Generation System (NP.G.S.)

About a month ago, I met up with one of the top marketers in his category, who also lives locally. We both agreed that the information in this book should cost at least five to ten thousand dollars.