It’s true.
When I teach advertising seminars around the world, I often grab a local newspaper and tear out a few ads. Then I project them on a giant screen and walk the audience through them.
What did the advertiser do right?
What did they do wrong?
Almost every time, there are far more wrongs than rights. And you can learn a lot about what to do… by showing what NOT to do.
Most of these advertisers aren’t bad businesspeople. They simply never learned how to create an effective advertisement.
So what do they do?
They copy what everyone else is doing.
And what everyone else is doing is usually dull, cautious, and forgettable.
But that’s the opposite of what advertising should do.
Your ad must separate you from the competition.
You don’t do that by whispering.
You do it by standing up, standing out, and speaking out.
That’s how you get noticed… remembered and make the cash register go KA-CHING!
Can’t attend my seminar?
Read SMASHVERTISING. It’s essentially an advertising seminar in graphic-novel form.
Or study the masters: John Caples, Claude Hopkins, Eugene Schwartz.
Once you understand how effective advertising works, something interesting happens.
Your competition doesn’t get smarter.
They just start to f-a-d-e away.