Several years ago, one of my European friends called me up while liquidating the contents of his storage space in L.A.
He asked me if I was interested in taking possession of his collection of space ads.
I said “sure” and he told me to expect it within a week.
But instead of the compact collection I was envisioning, four huge USPS Priority boxes arrived, packed with thousands of space ads. (I’ve probably “inherited” a dozen other collections since then.)
While many of the ads were interesting from a historic point of view, over 80% of the collection had little relevance to effective direct response advertising today. Count among them numerous ads for detergents and tooth paste.
I’ve since learned to become merciless at this pruning process with the end result that the remaining ads contain the kernel of an actionable idea (and at least one element of copy or marketing) any accomplished direct marketer can take and run with.
What’s in the new version?
Even though the “finish line” is close at hand, I’m pacing myself for Heartbreak Hill which includes a last pass over a mountain of space ads as well as magalogs and the numerous innards of direct mail pieces.
Here’s an example of the type of magalog in this collection with tens of millions of mailings.
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