Why Modern-Day Marketing Masters Study Century-Old Masterpieces
by Tom Ruwitch
Afew weeks ago, I ran a storytelling workshop for a group of business owners.
They liked what they heard, except for one guy who gave me a 1-star review.
He was steamed because I used an “old” advertisement as my presentation’s centerpiece.
The ad in question: Rosetta Stone’s masterpiece “Farmboy” ad.
It features a black-and-white picture of a farmboy on the left, with the following copy on the right: “He was a hardworking farm boy. She was an Italian supermodel. He knew he would have just one chance to impress her. Rosetta Stone. The fastest and easiest way to learn Italian.”
That ad helped transform Rosetta Stone from a modest family-owned venture, earning $10 million a year, to a publicly traded behemoth earning more than $250 million a year.
The Farmboy ad is loaded with lessons that can help ANY businessperson craft powerful, client-attracting stories. (I share those lessons at FarmBoyAd.com.)
That “old” ad first ran in 2006 – 16 years ago. (Gasp!). I guess that’s TOO OLD for some people.
But actually, the Farmboy ad is one of the youngsters in my Storytelling Hall of Fame.
I haven’t broken ground yet for the Hall. But I’ve selected the first-ballot inductees. And most of them are WAY older than that 16-year-old Farmboy ad.
Here are a few of those hall-of-fame advertisements:
- “Do You Make These Mistakes in English?” - a print advertisement for a book called How to Master Good English in 15 Minutes a Day by Sherwin Cody. The ad first appeared in the early 1920s and ran for 40 years!
- “Always a bridesmaid, never a bride” – the ad that first ran 100 years ago and helped turn Listerine from a little-known antiseptic to the world’s most popular cure for “halitosis.”
- “Two young men” – The Wall Street Journal’s sales letter that ran for 28 years, beginning in 1975. It generated more than $2 billion in subscription sales for WSJ. Yeah, I said BILLION.
- “They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano” - an ad that launched in the 1920s for a music correspondence course. This may be the most copied print piece in advertising history.
- “Bounce” - Apple’s visually stunning 2019 advertisement for AirPods (wireless earbuds). This is the baby of the bunch, but definitely deserves a spot in the Hall.
The most successful marketers dissect these ads for one simple reason: If you want to become a master, you study masterpieces.
In fact, copywriter Martin Conroy came up with the idea for “Two Young Men” by studying successful advertisements that ran in 1919 – including one headlined “The story of two men who fought in the Civil War.”
Most of these Hall-of-Fame ads may be old, but they are masterpieces. And they hold the key to marketing mastery.
To learn more about these masterpieces go to HallOfFameAds.com, where I’m giving away an eBook called: “Hall of Fame Ads Reveal: 5 Storytelling Secrets to Captivate Prospects and Inspire Them to Buy.”
Tom Ruwitch is the Founder and Chief Story Officer at Story Power Marketing. He’s offering a free, 12-minute micro-training called “The 3 Most Important Storytelling Keys to Captivate Prospects and Inspire Them to Buy -- Without Pitching and Prodding.” Instant access at: StoryPowerMarketing.com/3keys.