This ad comes from the December, 1980 Popular Mechanics issue and sold Joe Sugarman’s seminar retreat in the North Woods of Wisconsin.
Joes’s was the first high end seminar for direct response advertising and a finishing school for countless marketers, including: Richard Thalheimer of The Sharper Image, Drew Kaplan of Dak, Fred Simon of Omaha Steaks, Joe Karbo (The Lazy Man’s Way To Riches) and numerous others.
I was struck by this line:
“To be successful you must learn the rules, know them cold, and follow them. To be super successful, you must learn the rules, know them cold, and break them.”
I really like the quote. It can be applied in any aspects in life especially when you are talking about information marketing online! Sure, rules are not made to be broker. But does anyone here never heard of white lies? Sometimes, you need to tell those kinds of lies for a better purpose. Likewise, you need to break the rules to come up with something special.
Thank you, thank you and thanks some more. I’m presently writing a very different sales letter than the kind I’m used to, and I was really jonesing for a solid Sugarman swipe.
I should also thank you for sparing me from the squints (ie; reading the reprints of Joe’s letter in the Adweek Handbook).
You got it, John!