Pauley: Ya really like her?

Rocky: Sure I like her.

Paulie: What’s the attraction? I don’t see it.

Rocky: I dunno — she fills gaps.

Paulie: What gaps?

Rocky: She got gaps, I got gaps — together we fill the gaps.

Ad headlines that work are the ones that offer a relationship, and relationship that work always fill gaps. The trick, of course, is to find those gaps.

“Do you make mistakes in English?”

“How to win friends and influence people.”

“Lose ugly fat — an average of 7 pounds a month.

They’re all about gaps.

http://conversionmasters.com.au/branding-vs-direct-response-controversy-erupts/

Hope this adds something to folks reading.

Thank you Dean for such a useful checklist of headlines. Definitely one for my swipe file.

You nailed it. This is exactly what I’m always telling people. People don’t change. Only technology changes. What sold back in ancient Egypt still sells today.

I’m particularly tired of hearing that EVERYTHING is going online and ALL the old media will die. What’s going to happen is that a generation of copywriters and ad people will limit their study to online selling and when they finally discover that other media still work, they won’t have the skills to function. Then guys like me will get even more business.

I’ve worked in nearly every medium – TV, radio, outdoor, print, direct mail, online, you name it – and I can tell you it all works the same way. There are differences in execution and delivery, but the core of selling is always the same.

I agree, every copywriter who wants to write copy that sells should be familiar with this list.

I’m becoming increasingly cynical of the raft of internet writers publishing blogs, and books about how the modern, “Generation Y” consumer is so completely different from the consumer of yesterday, which really translates as: “Buy my new marketing book that says marketing ain’t like it used to be.”

Every time I read one of these blogs I laugh. As the base level, marketing is “just like it used to be” because people are just like they used to be. The evolution of the human brain didn’t change overnight because of new technology, social media, or txt spk.

The old books and old headlines are still important, because they were written and compiled by the first generation of people to effectively test and measure the human truths about consumer response. And there’s plenty for us to learn from them.

Trends, technology, style, buzz words, etc… all these things have moved on. So the landscape has changed. But the people are still much the same as they used to be. And so is the human response to a line on an envelope or a commercial.

Jules

As for the book being old, yes it is. But I posted these headlines for inspiration not as a list of headlines to directly copy. They represent constructions that have been proven through testing to work better than other headlines. So they are worthy of study. It’s up to you to take from them what you find useful. You’re searching for new ideas (good for you) and the past is a great place to find them.

All the big agencies – DDB, W+K, Saatchi & Saatchi and such – have moved beyond hard sell. And all the books written by agency copywriters today, have just one advice: cut the words – out! Find the idea that sucker punches the idea all the way home. And sprinkle some emotions on top. Why be a copywriter to do that. An AD can do that just as plain.

Personally, I’m finding the new agency world a bit dull. All the ads taste the same. Guess that is why i’m search backwards through history. But.. i dunno.. ..feels like the only use I can use any of this, is if it’s sugar coated with irony.

Well well. Great site, by the way. Keep it up!