Commandments (guiding principles) of A-list Copywriter

Proof:

Commandment-1:

“Thou shalt put proof above all other copy elements.” (p.5)

 Gary Bencivenga
 i.e. Proof like testimonials, mechanism & scientific study.
 According to Gary, the two most powerful words in advertising are neither
"FREE" nor "NEW." Instead, the two most powerful words are, "Yeah,
sure." (p.6)
 Gary had a unique solution to the problem of skeptical readers. His number
one commandment was to put proof above all other elements in his ads.
Rather than agitating a problem more and more, rather than making ever
larger promises, Gary's approach was to focus on proof first and foremost.

For example:

 "Announcing a direct response advertising agency that will guarantee to

outpull your best ad."
Specificity:

Commandment-2:

“Thou shalt stack the odds unfairly in thy favor.” (p.9)

 Parris Lampropoulos (“control killer”)

o "What do I need to do to weigh the odds so heavily in my favor...that
I know before I've even run the ad that it won?"
 About:
o It’s a guiding principle that, if you follow it, is almost guaranteed to
bring you into the top of the copywriting game.

Long running Control ad:

 i.e. An ad that's been running successfully for a long time, and

outperforming all competition.

For example:

 "Pay no taxes in 1997."

 "Pay no taxes in 1996,"

Example of Specificity: (p.10)

 Pay no taxes in 1997. (lacks specificity)

 How to Save $10,731 on Your Taxes Next Year (more specific headline than
the original one)
 Bombshell from top tax attorney:
The IRS owes you $10,731
 Here’s how to get it in as little as 60 days

How to beat odds in your favor?

 Research.
 It helps to have a wide data bank of what has worked before.
 USP (mechanism) to attract prospects.
 Promise benefit.
 Hook your reader.
 Not being willing to leave things to chance: find ways to derisk as much as
possible. (p.11)

Ted Nicholas said:

 "Ask yourself this question, 'If I had unlimited god-like powers and could
grant my prospective customer the biggest benefit I could possibly imagine
he or she would ideally want from my product, what would that be?' Write
down your answer." (p.11)
 Note:
o For the forms book (The Complete Book of Corporate Forms), Ted's
prospective customer was an entrepreneur. Above all, Ted reasoned,
entrepreneurs hate taxes. They want to protect the corporation's tax
shelter status. So he came up with the headline, "What will you do
when the IRS suddenly wipes out your corporation's tax shelter
benefits?" The resulting ad was a big winner.

Ways to derisk in copywriting?

  Be more creative than anyone else.
 Find a product that’s already selling in spite of awful marketing, and to do a
bit better.
 Work with the product owner to actually improve the offer.

One mechanical way to reduce your risk is simply to diversify:

 Diversify if your creativity is limited, and all the products around you have
solid marketing, or nobody will listen to your input about improving the
offer.
 Here’s a relevant quote from another A-list copywriter, Dan Ferrari… (p.12)
o “Winning at direct response is mostly a matter of taking as many
swings as possible. The C-level marketers that test 50 promos per
year will beat the A-list marketers that test 5. Over longer periods of
time, as variability compounds, this will become even more
pronounced.”

Reader’s Attention:
Commandment-3:

“Thou shalt not take thy reader’s attention in vain.” (p.13)

 Joe Sugarman (Adweek Copywriting Handbook)

 About:
o Use this angle, if you want some easier, simpler ways to improve the
performance of your copy. It will take only a few minutes to obey,
but it can transform your copy. If you follow this commandment,
your reader can start pulling out his credit card and buying your offer
— without knowing what hit him.

How to get readers hooked on reading more of your copy?

 By using the cosmetic change.

 It’s a cliffhanger.
 Author of ‘Adweek Copywriting Handbook’, Joe Sugarman— somewhere
around the middle of that book, suggests a small, almost cosmetic change
to get readers hooked on reading more of your copy:
o "One way to increase readership is by applying a theory I call 'seeds
of curiosity.' It goes like this. At the end of a paragraph, I will often
put a very short sentence that offers some reason for the reader to
read the next paragraph. I use sentences such as: ‘Let me explain’,
‘Here comes the good part’."

But isn’t this overkill? Isn’t your reader too smart to fall for such tricks?
  No, if you use “seeds of curiosity” and more broadly speaking “slippery
slide” according to Joe, you’re good to go.
 The fact is, your reader is distracted. He doesn’t really want to read an ad.
He probably doesn’t need what you’re selling, and he won’t want it unless
you can tell your full seductive story. The solution is to use seeds of
curiosity, and more broadly, something Joe called the "slippery slide." I'll
let him explain:
o "[Your prospects] must read your headline and be so compelled to
read further that they read your subheadline. Then they must be so
moved that they read your first sentence. And the rest of the copy
must be so compelling that by the time your prospects read 50
percent of your ad, they are helplessly caught in a slippery slide and
can’t escape."

End-of-paragraph cliffhangers are not the only way to get people slipping down
that slide: (p.14-15)

 You can also introduce…

o Provocative quotes;
o Or tease a story that you won't complete until later (Read Appendix
B to the Adweek book for Ginger story).
o Note:
 Do these to create curiosity.

Think of curiosity as an IOU:

  Cliffhanger your readers with ‘I owe you’ strategy.
 Give a couple of IOUs to your reader right in your headline:
o "I promise to pay you some valuable information," each IOU says,
"just give me a bit of time."
 Since you owe debt (information/insight) to the reader, he will hang on, but
if you make him wait too long by using too many IOUs, then he will leave
your sales page. "This guy is never gonna pay up," he will say. "This is just
worthless paper."
 In other words, don’t overdo it. But do do it. Used within reason, seeds of
curiosity work great, and are something most copywriters could use more
of.

Occasion Copy (the current moment…)

Commandment-4:

“Remember an occasion for thy copy, and make it sexy.” (p.16)

 Dan Ferrari: beat the previous control by 325%. He had on his name four
controls in a row at The Motley Fool.
o "I always look for an occasion to tie my copy into."

Why occasion copy matters?

 Your prospect is not with you mentally when he first sees your sales letter.
o He's probably skeptical, and he has many questions.
o One question that's likely to pop up in his head is…
 "Why am I hearing about this now?"
 Note:
o Dan's background writing financial copy taught him the importance
of answering that question. After all, financial markets move with
current events. That's why financial promos are often tied to an
occasion bubbling in the popular mind.
 For example:
o In 1997, the stock market was in the middle of a nice bullmrun. So
Boardroom ran a promo written by A-list copywriter Eric Betuel. The
promo promised info on how to protect your savings and profit from
"big money shocks."

 Recent occasion:
 o Ray Dalio changed his mind from ‘cash is trash’ to maybe it’s not
trash during the 2022 recession. He changes his mind that we do
need the money in economic downfall.

If the occasion copy has taken over the control… (p.17)

 All you have to do is to run the same promo with slight occasional changes
to keep it updated.
 Take the example of the same above ad:
o A year later, the mood had started to change. The market was
overheating and all that dot-com money was going crazy. So
Boardroom ran the same promo with another cover. It talked about
how to protect yourself and profit from the…
 “coming worldwide money panic."
o Then in the spring of 2000, Nasdaq hit its peak and then quickly
dropped 20%. Boardroom ran the same promo again. This time, the
new cover talked about the…
 "coming stock market panic."
 All in all, the same promo ran for over 5 years. It mailed over 12 million
times. Only the occasion it was tied to kept getting updated.

What is occasion copy? (p.18)

 It is the current moment.

 These occasions are not small-time & trivial events, but occasions full of
drama... high stakes... life and death situations.
  Or in the words of Bill Murray in Ghostbusters, "Human sacrifice, dogs and
cats living together, mass hysteria!"
 Of course, maybe your promo doesn't literally involve mass hysteria or dogs
and cats living together. So that's where your job lies. You have to find that
drama and that occasion.
 So find a powerful occasion to tie an offer into.
o Use…
 The New York Times reports,
 Research done by a scientist, etc.

What does occasion copy teach us?

 Keep laser-focus eyes on current moments/events happening around the

world, particularly in your niche.
 Research & build your argument around the occasion.
Honor reader’s skepticism & structure ad accordingly

Commandment-5:

“Thou shalt honor thy reader’s skepticism, and structure thy ad accordingly.”
(p.20)

 About:
o This A-list copywriting knowledge is something very few people talk
about... but all A-listers instinctively do. Once you are aware of this,
you will have a new way to avoid some major copywriting flops... and
create some unconventional winners.
 Gene Schwartz: (Gradualization) Gene is known for “Breakthrough
Advertising”. This book is the source of all the really deep ideas in
marketing. Today, many smart marketers are rediscovering ideas Gene
wrote about back in 1964.
o "If you violate your prospect's established beliefs in the slightest
degree — either in content or direction — then nothing you promise
him, no matter how appealing, can save your ad."
 You can have all the nifty promises and terrific proof you want. But if your
arguments are out of order, or if you introduce a claim that doesn't belong,
you're a dead duck.

Gradualization:

 This idea comes in Breakthrough Advertising chapter 9. That’s where Gene

addresses the structure of copy.
  He writes that… the structure of your ad should be a bridge of belief
between the facts your prospect currently accepts... and the final facts you
want him to accept.
o In short, there should be a connection b/w your customer’s belief
(need, fear, desire…) & your offer.
 Gene calls this process of bridge building "gradualization".

Put simply, Gene's commandment is to…

 Order your arguments so they increase believability.

How Gene’s stance on believability is different from Gary Bencivenga's

emphasis on proof?

 You might think this sounds a lot like Gary Bencivenga's emphasis on proof.
But the two are as separate as dogs and donkeys.
 Of course, you should provide proof for all your claims.
 But…
o Gene is saying there is another source of believability.
o It comes from when you present each statement you make.

Another source of believability in Gene's words:

 “Every claim, every image, every proof in your ad has two separate
sources of strength:
1. “The content of that statement itself; and
2. “The preparation you have made for that statement — either
by recognizing that preparation as already existing in you
 prospect's mind, or by deliberately laying the groundwork for
that statement in the preceding portion of the ad itself.”
 Examples of this in practice: (p.22)
o It comes from Breakthrough Advertising itself. In that same chapter
9, Gene breaks down one of his own ads. The offer was a repair your-
TV booklet, and the audience was 1950s TV owners.
o Gene's ad doesn't start off talking about how easy it is to fix your TV,
or how much money you could save by doing so. Such an approach
did run (“Save up to $100 a year on TV repairs!”) but it failed to be
profitable. Most likely, readers didn't believe fixing their TV was
something they could do.
o So instead, Gene’s ad starts off with the headline,
 Why Haven't TV Owners Been Told These Facts?
o The body copy then shows people how TVs in manufacturer’s test
rooms run perfectly for years... how all it takes are a few key knob
twists... how anybody could do this, as long as he knew which knobs
to turn and when. Only then does the ad mention that you, the TV
owner, can make these tweaks yourself — and save yourself $100 a
year.
You should not kill your time idly (Write Faster…)

Commandment-6:

“Thou shalt not kill thy time idly.” (p.25)

 Claude Hopkins: author of Scientific Advertising.

 Hopkins was certainly a glutton for work. He worked 16-hour days, every
day, including Sundays — his “best working days, because there were no
interruptions.”
 In short, he loved his work…
 Here is an excerpt from Claude Hopkins’ autobiography My Life in
Advertising:
o “All the difference lay in a different idea of fun. [...] So the love of
work can be cultivated, just like the love of play. The terms are
interchangeable. What others call work I call play, and vice versa. We
do best what we like best.”
 Note:
 In other words, work can become fun, if you work at it.

Mantra of Copy Legends: start your day with three hours of copywriting.

 Some of the top copywriters out there — including Gene Schwartz, Gary
Bencivenga, and Parris Lampropoulos — have stated that a good day for
them consists of three hours of honest writing. Use that as a benchmark
for yourself.
  If you want to make so much money, then write faster more than anybody
else.

John Carlton: on hardwork… (p.27)

“Think of yourself as being in a movie — you may not have total control
over everything, but you have a lot MORE control than you naturally believe
you have.
“Write your script the way you want, and then go for it.
“Accept reality, but never accept your own lame excuses for not making
things happen with as much input from you as you could muster.”
Problem mechanism

Commandment-7:

“Thou shalt seduce thy prospect with a new understanding of his problem.”

 Stefan Georgi: “problem mechanism”. (p.29)

About:

 It’s a hardcore copywriting advice.

 It can help you convert even the most jaded, skeptical, and hostile
prospects, and have them eating out of your hand.
 Some top copywriters say this is the biggest breakthrough they've had in
the last five years.

Mechanism:

 Gene Schwartz introduced the term mechanism in his book Breakthrough

Advertising.
o All good ideas go back to this book.
 It explains how and why your solution works:
o For example:
 "20,000 filter traps in Viceroy! Other cigarettes got you
coughing up bits of lung? Try Viceroy, it's new and it protects
your lungs in a way you haven't seen before.”
 But here's the problem…
o Many markets today — not all, but many — have been exposed to
too many ads. As soon as folks in these oversaturated markets hear a
 promise, they are likely to turn off. Because they've been burned too
many times, disappointed, lied to.
o Even if you pile on the proof... even if you jack up the excitement to
11... they will still keep their arms crossed and their faces set in a
frown.
 "No sire. I've heard it all too many times before."

Are we doomed if the market is oversaturated?

 Of course not.
 People still want to believe their problems can be solved.
 But they are conflicted.
 The answer is not a better sales pitch.
 If you want a shot at the attention and trust of these people, you need to
ease them into your message in a different way.

What’s the solution to oversaturated markets?

 Stefan's problem mechanism: a root cause of prospect’s problem.

o It’s something new which he doesn’t know about.
 Note:
o Instead of talking about your solution... instead of making
promises... instead of explaining why this time it will finally work...
you talk about the problem.
o Tell your prospect something new — a root cause of his problem,
which he doesn't know about.
 o Of course he hasn't been successful! He's been trying to solve his
problem all wrong.
 For example:
o “Do you have a health problem right now? Well, I bet you've tried to
solve it in lots of different ways. If you haven't had any success,
maybe it’s time to get your vagal tone checked.”
—"Healing frequency" promo by Donovan Health, an Agora imprint.
o Note:
 With enough repetition... with enough scientific studies... with
enough explanation of how it all works... this novel problem
mechanism made a lot of sales.

Reason behind using problem mechanism:

 A new problem mechanism educates your prospect about the true cause
for his ongoing problem. But the goal of the problem mechanism is still to
persuade.

What should you do?

 In the end, your problem mechanism and your offer should fit like a lock
and key.
o That gives you incredible and instant positioning. Everybody else is
out there, selling solutions to the wrong problem.
 Then you come along.
o You finally give the prospect the real cause behind his problem...
and you give him a tailor-made solution to address that cause.
o That’s why a new problem mechanism is a powerful tool in today’s
saturated market.
Surprise your readers

Commandment-8:

“Thou shalt surprise thy reader, even past the headline.” (p.34)

About:

 This strategy can literally make your copy addictive to readers.

 Rutz's rule about surprising your reader is part of a broader trend.
 This trend is transforming how direct response marketing is done and how
copywriters work.
 In a nutshell, if you want to be successful as a copywriter, now and in the
future, this surprise stuff is non-negotiable.

 Jim Rutz:
o "You must surprise the reader at the outset and at every turn of the
copy. This takes time and toil."

Dopamine vs. Surprise:

 Parris Lampropoulos once said that surprise actually releases dopamine in

your brain.
 Dopamine is the brain chemical of motivation and reward.
o It's involved in your sex drive and your cocaine habit, if you've got
one.
 In other words, little surprises tucked away between the lines literally
make your copy addictive.
Where to surprise your reader?

 The first and most obvious place to surprise your reader is, as Rutz says,
right at the outset.
 For example:
o Here how three A-list copywriters surprised right in the headline:
1. Read This Or Die

2. Amazing Secret Discovered By One-Legged Golfer Adds 50

Yards To Your Drives, Eliminates Hooks And Slices... And Can
Slash Up To 10 Strokes From Your Game Almost Overnight

3. Get Rich Slowly

o Note:
 The first headline, written by Rutz himself, uses audacity to
shock the prospect into reading.
 The second headline was written by John Carlton. It uses
paradox ("one-legged golfer??") to put a spoke in the reader's
mental wheel and force him to listen.
 The third headline, written by Gary Bencivenga, surprises by
flipping the popular script.
 Most copywriters know the headline needs to grab attention…
o But many copywriters stop after simply talking about a problem or by
making a big promise.
o The three headlines above, all of which fronted successful
promotions, show how you can use surprise to do one better than
everybody else.
How to surprise your readers?

 The key is not to stop with the deadline.

 As Rutz says, you must continue to surprise your reader at every turn.
 A reliable way to do this is simply by sharing some new and novel facts.

Of course, digging up rare and unusual facts takes a lot of work.

 And there are only so many such facts to go around. The good news is,
there are other, easier ways to keep your readers on their toes as they go
through your copy.
 For example:
o Take a look at the the following short passage from a Jim Rutz
promotion:
 "The ultimate nightmare: Being trapped in extreme pain, day
after day. GREAT NEWS: Some doctors have learned in the past
ten years how to block almost any degree of pain. But you have
to know what kind of treatment to ask for... or how to get a
physician who specializes in pain management... or where to
find an accredited pain management facility. It's all on page
127. Don't be a dumb bunny and wait until you get hit by a
cement truck. Get this knowledge now.”
o That dumb bunny and cement truck stuff at the end — pretty
surprising for a sales letter, right? Clever turns of phrase...
lampshaded cliches... little jokes. These devices keep the dopamine
drip going, and keep your reader sliding down towards the sale.
Another way to surprise your reader lies in the actual structure of your copy:

 According to Dan Ferrari…

o "Your copy should be like a spiral that winds around the linear, logical
skeleton of the points you need to make. The reader should never
know for sure what you’re going to say next."
 At its simplest, the skeleton of any sales argument can be reduced to a few
beliefs that logically follow each other.
o But that doesn't mean your copy, has to plod from one belief to
another in a heavy-handed, predictable way.
o You can tease and twist and interweave those arguments.
o Think J.K. Rowling, and how she interweaves five different storylines
in each Harry Potter book.

For further detailed study look up Dan Ferrari's Genesis promo for Green Valley:

 See how it snakes its way from the opening tabloid story... to the scientific
research... to the background of Lee Euler, the founder behind the offer...
and back again. Dan builds up his sales arguments bit by bit in a logical way
— always presenting something new and interesting to the reader.
Don’t be boring

Commandment-9:

“Thou shalt not be a boring salesman against thy neighbor.” (p.38)

 About:
o It’s controversial commandment because it goes against much
traditional copywriting dogma. And it’s not associated with a specific
A-list copywriter. Rather, it's about a new breed of millionaire
marketers and copywriters, who are becoming more and more
relevant in today's world.

What "salesmanship in print" used to be as Claude Hopkins wrote in 1927:

 "Never seek to amuse. That is not the purpose of advertising. People get
their amusements in the reading-matter columns. The only interest you can
offer profitably is something people want."

What salesmanship has becoming today?

 But things have slowly been changing for the past several decades.
 These days, even hardcore direct response businesses who sell to cold
traffic find that entertaining is a must.
 Or in the words of Kevin Rogers of Copy Chief:
o "'Aggressive persuasion' is dying with the Boomers, but Big Tech will
kill you for it first. The best modern copywriters spend more time
studying Quentin Tarantino than they do Claude Hopkins."
Salesmanship according to Donnie Bryant:

 Copywriter Donnie Bryant summed up this shift in a clever way. He said the
idea of salesmanship makes many people think of used-car salesmen at the
New Jersey turnpike. That's why Donnie declares the era of salesmanship in
print is over. Instead, he claims we are now in the era of “showmanship in
print.”
 For example:
o "Infotainment" is another word for showmanship in print.
o It means a combination of personal stories, humor, genuine
marketing and business insights, and a serving of shock jock tactics.
o Ben Settle is its practitioner who sells his print books to his
newsletter subscribers.

Has showmanship replaced direct response copywriting?

 The start of this new era of "showmanship in print" doesn't mean direct
response basics like benefits and proof and closing the sale go flying out the
window. They are all still there, hidden in those Agora videos and in each of
Ben Settle's emails.
 What is happening is that formerly separate newspaper sections — articles,
cartoons, classifieds — are all merging together. What we have now is one
giant Mad Magazine on which every page entertains and educates and
sells, too.
Don’t enviously desire secrets

Commandment-10:

“Thou shalt not covet secrets, but follow the good advice thou hast been given.”

 About: (p.42)
o It’s the final canonical A-list commandment — which happens to be
the most valuable piece of advice in this entire book.

Psyche behind the word Secret:

 "Secret" is a powerful word in direct marketing, but many markers use it as

a crutch.
 For example:
o If you go on Amazon right now and look at bestselling books on
Internet Marketing, you will see a curious thing: 6 of the top 15
books have a title of the form "[Topic] Secrets." So there's Traffic
Secrets, YouTube Secrets, Instagram Secrets, plus three others.
o As you might know, much of what Agora does is sell secrets. Secrets
to getting rich... secrets to getting free of pain and disease... secrets
about how to sell secrets.
 The human brain loves secrets:
o This applies to your prospects, and it applies to you, too. Because
along with persuading others, we are all also prospects. We easily get
sucked in by the promise of secret copywriting or marketing
knowledge.
 Mark Ford (author of Great Leads) and Agora founder Bill Bonner were
talking about the psychology underlying what they do... and they
concluded the following:
o "There is an inverse relationship between the value of knowledge and
what people are willing to pay for it. The most important things in life
you’ve probably heard a hundred times before, but you’re not paying
attention. When you’re in the right place and you hear it, you have
that ‘aha’ moment and everything changes."
o Note:
 They've concluded that secrets aren't worth that much.
Instead, the really valuable knowledge is lying out there in the
open.
 Maybe you think this sounds like some moralizing Hollywood
script — Brad Pitt travels to the edge of the solar system,
looking for an answer to life, the universe, and everything...
only to find it was waiting for him in his own home all along.
 And that’s pretty much how it is. Just because this trope has
worn thin in our culture shouldn't blind you to its usefulness.
The most valuable info is rarely sexy, and it's probably been
staring you in the face for a long while.
 Obvious Adams is a little book about an unremarkable man who becomes a
remarkable marketing success. Here's a relevant quote from the book:
o "How many of us have sense to see and do the obvious thing? And
how many have persistence enough in following our ideas of what is
obvious? The more I thought of it, the more convinced I became that
 in our organization there ought to be some place for a lad who had
enough sense to see the obvious thing to do and then to go about it
directly, without any fuss or fireworks, and do it!"

What’s the right secret?

 ‘Aha’ moment (the right moment: Mark Ford)

 Persistence & the ability to see/sense obvious things (Obvious Adam)

“Pre-existing condition”

 Such condition exist in the prospect’s brain, which is particularly severe if

your prospect is any kind of business owner. If you exploit this condition,
you can speak directly to a hidden desire your prospect has. Almost nobody
else is doing the same, and the result is many more sales for you. (p.45)
A-List Copywriters:

 Gary Bencivenga
 Gene Schwartz
 Brian Kurtz (VP at Direct Publisher Boardroom)
 Parris Lampropoulos
 Clayton Makepeace
 Ted Nicholas
 Dan Ferrari
 Joe Sugarman (Adweek Copywriting Handbook)
 Lee Euler
 Kevin Rogers (Claude Hopkins vs. Quentin Tarantino)
 Aaron Winter
 Eric Betuel
 Stefan Georgi
 Victor O. Schwab (who wrote the famous headline: “How to Win Friends
and Influence People”)
 Dan Kennedy
 David Ogilvy (launched the agency: Ogilvy & Mather)
 Claude Hopkins
 John Carlton
 Stefan Georgi
 Jim Rutz
 Donnie Bryant (“showmanship”)
 Robert Collier
 Gary Halbert
  Mark Ford (author of Great Leads)

Gurus Authority in their niches:

 JamesAltucher
 Robert Kiyosaki
 Rich Schefren (Internet marketer)

Organization:

 Copy Chief (copywriting training center & community)

 Traffic & Conversion

Commercial company:

 Clickbank (E-commerce company)

 Agora imprint
 Profits Unlimited (Agora imprint)
 The Motley Fool
 Harmon Brothers (That's the same ad agency that did the ironic, viral-style
videos for Purple Mattress, Squatty Potty, and Poo-Pourri.)
 Donovan Health (an Agora imprint)
 Green Valley Natural Products, a health company started by a famous
copywriter, Lee Euler.
 Bill Bonner (Agora founder)

Ads:
  Purple Mattress,
 SquattyPotty
 Poo-Pourri

Swipe File:

 Dan Ferrari's Genesis promo for Green Valley.

Books & People:

 Adweek Copywriting Handbook: this book contains the most simple, direct,
and useful intro to sales copywriting.
 Breakthrough Advertising: Gene Schwartz. This book is the source of all the
really deep ideas in marketing. Today, many smart marketers are
rediscovering ideas Gene wrote about back in 1964.
 Great Leads (book by Mark Ford & John Forde)
 The Internet Business Manifesto (book)
 Obvious Adams (book)
 Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, the scientist who won that 2009 Nobel Prize on
telomeres.
 William Goldman (screenwriters)
 Quentin Tarantino (filmmaker & actor)

Big brands Claude Hopkins worked for a century ago:

 Palmolive
 Quaker Oats
 Pepsodent