Can I ask questions about classic swipe files here?

Well I have one which is I think has not been asked.

Many times I have seen that people should study classic sales letters going back decades.

Which is fine.

However does one really get the subtleties of that letter?

A copywriter in the 1960's writing to a prospect in the 1960's knew exactly who he was writing to, what motivating factors there were, etc etc.

Reading that Ad now in 2014 it is unlikely the reader (student) is thinking about the audience at that time.

You can see the mechanics of the letter but do you try and think of who they were writing to as well?

I hope that makes some kind of sense, apologies if not.

Was something I was curious about. (I'm not a Copywriter but you are Mr McLeod so do you?)

Dan

I don't know.

I was just wondering if Copywriters when reading a classic Ad take this sort of thing into account.

Many Ads that were successful in the past would fail dismally now which is why they are not run anymore.

So reading them is fine but there will be certain lines in the Copy that maybe you don't notice as key now that would have been then.

Maybe I am wrong.

Naturally I can't think of any examples as I am not a Copywriter with some sort of swipe file.

Dan

PS: It is your thread so I presume you have a load of questions.

Today, there are a growing number of people profiting from the idea of making appeals to the reptile brain (Crocodile, dragon, frog, lizard etc. etc.) which has the four F's as its basis. Freeze. Flee. Fight or F**k.

Oren Klaff is one of the leading names in this "new" psychology of persuasion.

Truth is, our habits may be changing rapidly but our brain hasn't evolved all that much in the last couple of millennia so you really don't need to know the current events of the day unless the appeal was timely and topical.

The appeal of snake oil of the late 1800's and early Twentieth century are pert near the same appeals made today by the supplement companies.

So, my opinion, when you study classic advertising, look for the appeals to basic human nature. I ask my students (when I had them) to start with A. Maslow and study the Pyramid. Then look to Primary PreOccupations.

IF you do this then make sure the ad you study was one that worked, and for the most part RESULTS are hard to come by.

But, it doesn't hurt to know the times too. Long term storage food was a boom during the cold war, especially around the time of the Cuban missile crisis, which mirrors much of today's pitches of the survival, oops, xcuse me...the Preppers and instead of big bad Russia, they simply substitute Obama.

Friends, Romans and Countrymen, lend me your ears...and V. Van Gogh took it literally.

The psychology of human behavior is much the same as it was in Plato's day.

gjabiz

PS. So ask away, some of us have been around forever.