Eugene Schwartz Copywriting Swipe File

Eugene Schwartz wrote this ad just over 40 years ago and insertions mushroomed into newspapers and magazines all across the country.

It even appeared in the conservative financial publication, “Barron’s National Business and Financial Weekly.”

It’s a little high brow yet at its core, it’s a business opportunity ad.

You can click on the thumbnail to the left for a fully readable PDF of the ad but if you do nothing else, put this one into your headline swipe file.

Few could package a giant (often bordering on an unbelievable) promise into an irresistible read like Eugene Schwartz.

The “Do you have the courage…” preamble really adds topspin to the claim.

Imagine running across a headline today that reads: “Now You Can Earn a Half Million Dollars a Year.”

Even for the average white collar worker reading Barron’s, this is hard to swallow.

Now, imagine encountering this ad in 1967. That year, $500 thousand was worth over $3 million in 2010 dollars.

The claim seems nuts.

Yet this ad had a ton of insertions over the course of several years.

Were people just gullible in the 1960’s?

Hardly.

The beauty of “Do You Have the Courage to Earn a Half Million Dollars a Year?” verses “Now You Can Earn a Half Million Dollars a Year” is it deflects the attention from the claim to an internal quality in the reader. The headline is then paid off perfectly with the qualification process spelled out in the body copy.

This is one of those evergreen headlines that’s very customizable today. The real beauty of it is it’s still virgin swipe material for use online.

Unlike the now nauseating “Who else wants?” headline which mindless marketers continue to ape, this is the kind of headline that can add a jolt of power to your promotions and make them stand out from the rest of the crowd.

Yes, there are a few dated elements to the ad like the exclusive use of masculine pronouns but Gene’s copy is timeless.

Here are the lapel grabbing fourth and fifth paragraphs of the ad.

And above all, [for the kind of man] who is willing to accept the responsibility for other men’s futures, the loneliness that always surrounds the person in command, and the envy and hostility that will plague him for the rest of his life.

Do you have the courage to reach out for this kind of life? To accept its incredible rewards and incredible hazards? If you do, read on. If you don’t, consider yourself lucky and turn the page — there is nothing left in this ad that will make an iota of sense to you.

Here’s an ad for quitting smoking written by Gene Schwartz in 1975.

32 years later this is a much quieter market in the United States.

But imagine taking this approach to Russia or China where tobacco use is stratospheric and direct response advertising is still a wide open highway.

Have you ever seen a stronger testimonial then the one Gene puts front and center in this ad?

If You Read Nothing Else, Read This:

“In this book, the millions of Americans who want to stop smoking have a sound plan, based on medical and scientific experience and research. The re-learning approach, on which this is based, has already proved effective for thousand of ex-smokers. Every cigarette smoker who wants to quit could be helped enormously by following the advice in this excellent book.”

American Cancer Society, Luther L. Terry M.D., former U.S. Surgeon General

From 4 Packs a Day to Zero In 4 Hours!

What happens when the world’s most successful direct response copywriter does an “internship” educating underprivileged kids in New York City’s Harlem?

Why, some of the winingest ads ever written in the childhood education market.

Gene was so passionate about methods of learning and educating children that he left the comfort of his Park Avenue apartment several times a week and traveled three miles north to Harlem while pioneering a pet program. That program sought to bridge the vast divide which separated black kids in Harlem from their wealthy, white counterparts in Gene’s neighborhood.

It had a lifelong impact on the lives of many of these children.

Gene, of course applied the same learning strategies at home with his son, Michael who went on to have a bright career on Wall Street, thanks to the mathematics and physics workouts by his dad’s side. (See photo in: “How to Turn Your Child Into a Classroom Wizard.”)

[Read more…] about Eugene Schwartz Ads in the Childhood Education Market