AI Summary
5 min readHow to Write Ads That Sell
Claude Hopkins had a manuscript that would become the most important book ever written on advertising—Scientific Advertising. When he showed it to his boss Albert Lasker, the highest-paid man in advertising history, Lasker refused to let him publish it. "This is giving away all of our secrets," Lasker said. He locked the manuscript in a safe for twenty years. Only after Lasker left the business was Hopkins allowed to release it, and the book has since sold nearly ten million copies. The reason Lasker hoarded it: the principles inside are not theoretical. They are battle-tested mechanisms that work.
The Obsession Behind the Expertise
Hopkins supported himself from age nine. He started working sixteen-hour days while still in junior high. "When I ceased before midnight, that was a holiday for me," he writes. "I often left my office at two o'clock in the morning. Sundays were my best working days because there was no interruption." For sixteen years after entering business, he rarely had an evening or Sunday not occupied by work. He is not recommending this to others, but he is clear about what it produced: "The man who works twice as long as his fellows is bound to go twice as far, especially in advertising. There is some difference in brains, of course, but it is not so important as the difference in industry."
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What you'll learn
- 1 How to Write Ads That Sell
- 2 (00:00) **Claude Hopkins' Purpose** - Hopkins wrote his autobiography not as personal history but as a business story meant to save others from "midnight groping"
- 3 (01:02) **Why This Book Matters** - Hopkins' autobiography comes bundled with his earlier book *Scientific Advertising*, which David Ogilvy called the foundation of his agency
- 4 (03:31) **The Host's Process** - The host originally planned to discuss only *Scientific Advertising* but re-read the autobiography and found too much valuable material to skip
- 5 (04:46) **Exceptional Hours Over Exceptional Ability** - Hopkins worked 16-hour days from age nine and rarely finished before midnight for 16 straight years
- 6 (06:22) **Treating Work as Play** - A railroad section foreman taught Hopkins the critical difference between working from necessity and working with enthusiasm
- 7 (10:00) **The Product Is Its Own Best Salesman** - At age 10 or 11, Hopkins sold his mother's homemade silver polish door-to-door and discovered a lasting principle
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Show Notes
Claude Hopkins was the greatest copywriter of all time. His ideas were so valuable that when he wrote them down in a book the founder of his advertising firm locked the manuscript in a safe for 20 years.
When the book was finally published it sold over 8 million copies. David Ogilvy said that nobody should work in advertising until they had read the book seven times.
This episode is what I learned by reading Claude Hopkins' autobiography My Life In Advertising and his legendary book Scientific Advertising.
Made possible by:
Ramp: https://ramp.com
Applovin: https://www.applovin.com
Vanta: https://vanta.com/founders
Some of my favorite quotes:
0:00 — "Any man who by a lifetime of excessive application learns more about anything than others owes a statement to his successors."
5:12 — "The man who works twice as long as his fellows is bound to go twice as far, especially in advertising."
5:30 — "If I have gone higher than others in advertising or done more, the fact is not due to exceptional ability but to exceptional hours."
6:48 — "To poverty I owe the fact that I never went to college. I spent those four years in the school of experience instead of the school of theory."
9:08 — "Which is work and which is play? If a thing is useful, they call it work. If it's useless, they call it play. But one is hard as the other. All the difference I see lies in the attitude of the mind."
9:32 — "I came to love work as other men love golf. I love it still. The love of work can be cultivated just like the love of play."
9:58 — "We do best what we like best."
13:05 — "A good product is its own best salesman. It is uphill work to sell goods without samples."
15:00 — "We must never judge humanity by ourselves. The things we want, the things we like may appeal to a small minority."
15:23 — "We must submit all things in advertising to the court of public opinion."
17:48 — "Some of the greatest successes I have ever known in advertising were ignorant men. One wrote copy which would induce a farmer to mortgage his barn to respond, but every sentence had to be edited for grammar."
20:23 — "John Powers created a new concept of advertising. He told the truth, but told it in a rugged and fascinating way."
25:47 — "Study salesmen, canvassers, and fakers if you want to know how to sell goods. No argument in the world can ever compare with one dramatic demonstration."
26:35 — "The average salesman seeks favors. He seeks profit for himself. His plea is, 'Buy my goods.' He makes a selfish appeal to selfish people, and of course, he meets resistance. I was selling service."
28:45 — "We must treat people in advertising as we treat them in person."
31:23 — "O
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