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This Headline Trounces All Others - Guaranteed

by The Copy Nazi Banned
8 replies
In the early Sixties "Printer's Ink" magazine asked copywriter Howard Luck Gossage to contribute to a feature they were running - "The ad I'll never forget".

Gossage was very impressed by a spot he'd seen in a 1925 edition of the Connellsville, Pa. paper.

It was a full-page ad for a haberdashery. Set in large wood-type. With the headline -

MONSTER SHIRT SALE

That ad got a LOT of attention.

Seems the typesetters had left an "R" out of the headline. So in reality it read -

MONSTER SHIT SALE


BTW back in those days, Connellsville was a wealthy coal-mining center. It had more millionaires per capita than any other city in the United States and was known as the "Coke Capital of the World" - due to the amount and quality of coke produced in the city's beehive ovens.

I'm guessing they dropped that slogan.


#guaranteed #headline #trounces
  • Profile picture of the author KingOfContentMarketing
    I live in the new coke capital of the world. None for me. Anyhowz, thanks for this. I had to refresh my brain on Gossage. Wow--started the Green movement. Got Marshall McLuhan rolling.

    Here is his first ad supposedly--for Qantas:

    Gossage Gallery - Qantas
    Signature
    Marketing is not a battle of products. It is a battle of perceptions.
    - Jack Trout
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    • Profile picture of the author The Copy Nazi
      Banned
      Originally Posted by joe golfer View Post

      I live in the new coke capital of the world. None for me. Anyhowz, thanks for this. I had to refresh my brain on Gossage. Wow--started the Green movement. Got Marshall McLuhan rolling.

      Here is his first ad supposedly--for Quantas:

      Gossage Gallery - Qantas
      If you'd read the ad you would know there is no "U" in Qantas - the oldest continuously operated airline in the world.

      BTW Gossage once wrote a clever spot for Land-Rover piggybacking Ogilvy's famous Rolls-Royce ad (which he swiped from an earlier Pierce-Arrow ad) - “At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock”.

      Gossage wrote- "At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in the new Land-Rover is the roar of the engine".

      (those early Landies would have been screaming at 60 mph. I've owned several. They weren't built for speed)
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      • Profile picture of the author KingOfContentMarketing
        Originally Posted by The Copy Nazi View Post

        If you'd read the ad you would know there is no "U" in Qantas - the oldest continuously operated airline in the world.

        BTW Gossage once wrote a clever spot for Land-Rover piggybacking Ogilvy's famous Rolls-Royce ad (which he swiped from an earlier Pierce-Arrow ad) - “At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock”.

        Gossage wrote- "At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in the new Land-Rover is the roar of the engine".

        (those early Landies would have been screaming at 60 mph. I've owned several. They weren't built for speed)
        Fixed. Here's a pretty good sampler.

        A Howard Gossage Sampler

        I like the headline "Should We Also Flood The Sistine Chapel So Tourists Can Get Nearer The Ceiling?"
        Signature
        Marketing is not a battle of products. It is a battle of perceptions.
        - Jack Trout
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        • Profile picture of the author The Copy Nazi
          Banned
          Originally Posted by joe golfer View Post

          Fixed. Here's a pretty good sampler.
          You know who's going to love this? Duris. You watch.

          Thanks for uploading.

          BTW notice the way they don't justify the copy? They break words at the end of the sentence. That drives me crazy.
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  • Profile picture of the author The Copy Nazi
    Banned
    Seems some of you didn't get it. Look at the OP now.
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  • Profile picture of the author sween
    Originally Posted by The Copy Nazi View Post

    In the early Sixties "Printer's Ink" magazine asked copywriter Howard Luck Gossage to contribute to a feature they were running - "The ad I'll never forget".

    Gossage was very impressed by a spot he'd seen in a 1925 edition of the Connellsville, Pa. paper.

    It was a full-page ad for a haberdashery. Set in large wood-type. With the headline -

    MONSTER SHIRT SALE

    That ad got a LOT of attention.

    Seems the typesetters had left an "R" out of the headline. So in reality it read -

    MONSTER SHIT SALE


    BTW back in those days, Connellsville was a wealthy coal-mining center. It had more millionaires per capita than any other city in the United States and was known as the "Coke Capital of the World" - due to the amount and quality of coke produced in the city's beehive ovens.

    I'm guessing they dropped that slogan.


    Do you happen to know where we can see a copy of this online? Thanks.
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