How Claude Hopkins Lived To 144 Years

For advanced students of Hopkins,

-Go through "My life in advertising" and highlight his successes. He worked with a meat packing company, pepsodent toothpaste. Have you ever heard of film on teeth? He coined that word. It was called something else, but he called it film. To sell the benefits the toothpaste could give you.

Esp highlight the examples where he was ridiculed, people thought it wouldn't work. In this internet age, everyone jumps aboard the same thing. You have to learn why something works. My life in advertising is as much about how to gain advantage in business, as it is specific marketing and advertising advice. He looked for what was not being done.

Vastly different than this internet age, where everyone is doing the same thing (and they wonder why they aren't getting any results).

There's so many awesome quotes in the book, like "he made a selfish offer to selfish people, and of course it wouldn't work". That's pretty profound. These are profound statements that are like 20 years in the making. It took 20 years of working 16 hours a day to come up with it, and it's right there. And, "I've never seen anything more ridiculous than gray haired boards of directors deciding what housewives want". Again, profound. That's what seperates the average ($50 k a year earner) from a millionaire.

Another quote,

"A salesman's mistake may cost little. An advertisers mistake may cost a thousand times that much. So be more cautious, more exacting."

Do people even understand this? A salesman's mistake would cost a little. You can quickly correct it. The average person doesn't treat their advertising the way they would a thousand salesman. No wonder most advertising doesn't work. Hopkins was waaaaaay ahead of his time.

Really? I don't dispute that he is one of the masters, and his book is on my reading list, but did he really say "college doesn't teach you anything?" Now, I'm aware that a big chunk of a given person's education might be wasted, never recalled-never used-and is pretty expensive for something that's never used.

However, if I get in a car accident, I sure hope I don't get stuck with a surgeon who didn't bother getting a degree. The next time I fly, I'm hoping the plane was designed by people with real engineering degrees, electronics degrees, etc.

Now as for marketing, I would much rather consult with Dan Kennedy, who has no degree, than the MBAs he likes to poke fun of. I also know there are bad teachers/professors, like there are bad examples in any profession. But to say that college doesn't teach you anything is just beyond ridiculous, and a real insult to many brilliant, talented people who dedicate themselves to passing on important knowledge by teaching college.