Direct Response Copywriting Swipe File

Why Puerto Rico is unique as a place for manufacturers to make more profits

This ad with Malcolm Forbes was part of the series Ogilvy and Mather created for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

They’re flatly some of the best business development ads ever written and were responsible for changing the landscape of the island.

Here is the original space ad written by David Ogilvy himself.

I would’ve opted for Forbes to don his “after hours” motorcycle leather instead of the CEO look, so it’s good I wasn’t part of that creative decision.

Why Puerto Rico is unique as a place for manufacturers to make more profits

How Long Should An Advertisement Be?

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Warning: if you want the long answer to this, it’ll take about 20 minutes to read this behemoth of an ad from Victor Schwab. Also, unless you’re comfortable working with electron microscopes, printing this on an 8 1/2 x 11 will be a slog

(Just click on the ad image to download the almost one megabyte PDF file.)

There are so many timeless observations in this piece, that it’s hard to beleive it first appeared in print 55 years ago.

Much of this ad was repurposed into Victor Schwab’s classic, “How To Write a Good Advertisement.”

Here is one of my favorite sections called:”

“22 Ways to Hold Interest Longer” [Read more…] about How Long Should An Advertisement Be?

Ogilvy Ad from Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Series

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Here is another ad in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Series — perhaps one of the most effective business development advertising campaigns ever devised.

Why Puerto Rico is the most profitable of Omark Industries’ 14 plant sites in 5 countries

Here are the reasons why this Oregon metals fabricator’s plant in Puerto Rico is their leading profit maker worldwide. Send in the coupon below to discover what these same reasons can mean to you and your company’s profits.

OMARK INDUSTRIES, a major manufacturer of cutting chain, hydraulic loaders and industrial fasteners, started in Puerto Rico in 1965 with a cutting-chain plant in Bayamon.

Last year, this single 45,000-sq.-ft. facility earned over half of the company’s total after-tax profits. Here are some of the reasons why.

100% tax exemption

Although Puerto Rico is an integral part of the U.S., there are no federal taxes. What’s more, Puerto Rico offers qualified manufacturers like Omark 100% exemption from all local taxes for up to 30 years. In Puerto Rico, the profit you make is the profit you keep. [Read more…] about Ogilvy Ad from Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Series

Ads That Command: Defiant Child?

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Why do some ads hit the white hot center of a market and become the control ads remembered years later, while others fall by the wayside?

This long running ad from the child psychology market sheds some light.

Here’s the powerful, yet economic headline that froze frustrated parents in their tracks for years:

Defiant Child?

“Mouthy, disrespectful or resistant to authority?”

As a father of three young kids, it’s something I experience daily. And, this ad nails that feeling in the copy. [Read more…] about Ads That Command: Defiant Child?

Before banks were synonymous with vampire squids

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Here’s a lead generation ad, or a want ad if you will, from Merrill Lynch during their halcyon days in the early 1970s.

Before the era of the vampire squids and the CEOs who detonated century old companies with toxic derivatives, Merrill was a genteel place to work and boasted Ogilvy & Mather as its ad agency.

Imagine the psychographics of the candidates a company could recruit in 2016 using print advertising with a detailed questionnaire like this one.

Could you make the grade at Merrill Lynch?