This book is not written as a personal history, but as a business story. I have tried to avoid trivialities and to confine myself to matters of instructive interest. The chief object behind every episode is to offer helpful suggestions to those who will follow me. And to save them some of the midnight groping which I did. My only claim for credit is that I have probably worked twice as long as anybody else in this field. I have lived for many years in a vortex of advertising. Naturally I learned more from experience than those who had a lesser chance. Now I want that experience, so far as possible, to help others avoid the same difficult climb. Every pioneer should blaze his trail. That is all I have tried to do. I set down these findings solely for the purpose of aiding others to start far up the heights I scaled. Then, with the efforts I here describe, I hope you can now attain some peaks in advertising beyond any of us to date. - Claude C. Hopkins

Test marketing. Coupon sampling. Copy research. All are standard practices in today's world of advertising. All were invented by Claude C. Hopkins (1866-1932), who worked for various advertisers including Bissell Carpet Sweeper Company, Swift & Company and Dr. Shoop's patent medicine company until, at the age of 41, he was hired by Albert Lasker to write copy for Lord & Thomas advertising agency (forerunner to today's Foote, Cone & Belding). He stayed for 18 years. Scientific Advertising and My Life in Advertising remain essential, vital guideposts for present and future generations of advertising professionals. - Publisher.

"ADVERTISING should be judged only by the goods it is conclusively known to sell, at a given cost. Mere opinions on Advertising Copy should be excluded from consideration, because opinions on Advertising are conflicting as opinions on Religion. "But, it is different with Advertising, as it is with Mechanics or with Medicine, all three of which can be conclusively tested. "Many Advertisers, however, seem satisfied to spend their money on mere Opinions about Advertising when they might have invested it on Evidence about Advertising. "When it is anything less than Salesmanship it is not real Advertising, but only 'General Publicity.' And, 'General Publicity' admittedly claims only to 'Keep the Name before the People,' — to produce a 'General impression on the Trade,' and to 'Influence Sales' for the salesmen. "The only way to judge Advertising is to judge it by the amount of goods It is conclusively known to Sell, at a given cost." Get this copy for yourself and learn these Secrets...

""Most advertising copywriters know their fundamentals. Many of us practice them. Some of us should get back to them. ""Whether one is now studying to go into the field of copywriting, whether he is new in the craft, or whether he has been a practitioner in it for years, his knowledge-and practice-of these fundamentals will determine the extent of his success. ""As Daniel Defoe said, 'An old and experienced pilot loses a ship by his assurance and over-confidence of his knowledge as effectively as the young pilot does by his ignorance and want of experience.' ""So this book will strip down to fundamentals, try to forget the furbelows. For, as time goes on, every line of creative work gets cluttered up with impressive jargon and off-the-beam technicalities, with professional palaver that strays far away from the main objective."" Get your copy today - and learn the secrets of writing ads from the Masters...

Despite its long and profitable history, no one has assembled a single collection of all the basic secrets (or rules) of direct marketing. Until now. In these pages Denny Hatch and Don Jackson blitz you with the secrets, rules, and wisdom of nearly 200 of the great masters: from Claude Hopkins, David Ogilvy, and Max Sackheim to such modern greats as Jay Abraham, Dick Benson, Malcolm Decker, Bob Doscher, John J. Fleider, Jerry Gould, Bob Hacker, Dick Hodgson, Cecil Hoge, Sr., Bill Jayme, Ted Kikoler, Jim Kobs, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Malcolm McCluskey, Don Nicholas, J. Peterman, Max Ross, Jim Rutz, Emily Soell, Lew Smith, Bob Stone, Joan Throckmorton, and John Yeck.

Albert Davis Lasker started out as a newspaper reporter when still a teenager but soon got interested in advertising. He started first as an office clerk and later became a salesman. He then asked to be given responsibility for a money-losing account so that he could try his hand at copywriting. By the age of 20, he had bought Lord & Thomas advertising agency and remained its chief executive for more than four decades. This book is as close as readers can come to an autobiography. This book tells the story of how he shaped the agency which ranked number one in its day. Originally published in 26 installments of Advertising Age, this book takes into the boardroom of Lord & Thomas and reveals the business philosophy and hard-won knowledge of the man who was its leader for 40 years. Get your copy today and learn how the earliest and most successful marketer in the first half of this century created that success.