That's what I feel like I'm doing when I read from Claude Hopkins' book written in 1923, Scientific Advertising. To call it quaint is the supreme understatement. But have you ever walked through a century-old home and marveled at early, crude examples of technologies we have today? That's what you'll find in this book. David Olgilvy, one of the truly greats in advertising, as the story goes, made his people read this book seven times.
The link above is to a free online copy. Read a chapter or two. You'll get a chuckle out of many examples; selling toothpaste, admonishments to "the ad man" or advertising dish soap to "the homemaker." But wade through all that and you'll bump into things that still hold true today; things that can still make or break advertising's results. Things that still DO make or break results.
Here are a few that jumped out at me:
Hopkins admonishes the "ad man" to work hard at understanding everything he can about his subject. Not to just try and write clever sounding copy based on what the client gives him. Well, duh, right?! Well, how many ads make a silent thud because they were handed off to a copywriter who knew little more about the product or the audience than the bits and pieces given to him or her? Open up any local magazine or newspaper. Turn the TV on. The answer: waaaay too many ads. Do your freaking homework!
Tell the whole story. Don't think you'll get a second chance. Once you get someone's attention, tell the whole story.
Talk to customers.
Headlines need to discriminate, separate, speak to your specific audience. NOT try to interest everybody. Most headlines try to throw a wide net. And they do so to the detriment of the product they are supposed to sell.
Most creative directors luxuriate in big, glowing images of beautiful people enjoying the product because they don't know any better. Images and design support the message, not replace it. The idea, the reasons, the benefits and how compellingly you present them, these are what sell. Hopkins calls images expensive because they cost a lot of space. Is that the best use of the space?
Pretty good stuff, actually. Enjoy.
