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Review: Gene Schwartz Breakthrough Advertising

I’m not a huge fan of “rediscovered” and “re-packaged” books by famous copywriters.

But in this case I am more than happy to make an exception.

There is no doubt that Eugene Schwartz was an outstanding copywriter and marketer. He understood his role as a copywriter in a way that few who practice the craft today can equal.

In 1966 his book, Breakthrough Advertising, was published. It didn’t sell that well at the time and went out of print for a while.

But now it’s back, reprinted and packaged together with a set of 4 CDs, a video cassette, transcript and more.

About the book and Gene Schwartz...

He had a very disciplined and common sense view of his work.

Here’ what he was driving at...

It’s not the copywriter’s job to try to persuade people to do something they don’t want to do or are not ready to do.

The copywriter’s job is to recognize and understand the mass desires in society and to write ads or mailings that delivered products as the answer to those desires.

In other words, he listened a lot. He read of lot of popular publications and watched plenty of prime time TV. He was always listening...he wanted to know what millions of Americans were feeling. And he wanted to know how they framed those feelings. How did they express their desires and fears?

What language did they use?

In a way, the secret to Eugene Schwartz’s success was his ability to listen carefully and hear the language of mass desire.

He then wrote headlines and ads that bridged the connection between that mass desire and a particular product or service.

And while he may have been listening to the masses, he always wrote one-on-one, to an individual reader, one at a time.

A word about headlines...

Schwartz devotes a number of chapters in his book to the subject of headlines. I like that. These days too many writers just scribble a quick headline and dive quickly into the body copy.

His advice was to spend a huge amount of time on the headline. After all, if the headline doesn’t hold and engage a reader’s attention, that reader will never bother to read a single word of your beautiful body text.

For myself I have always found that the longer I spend on the headline, the better the ad or the letter. It is in the headline that you crystallize the heart of your message.

You need it to be strong enough to get the reader to start on the body text, and clear enough that it helps you write body text that flows beautifully and builds, line by line.

Here’s what you get in your Gene Schwartz Breakthrough Advertising package...

This package comprises a hard copy of Gene Schwartz’s book, 4CDs, a video cassette, transcript and more.

The video cassette is a recording of Schwartz giving one of his memorable talks. It’s a real one of a kind.

The CDs are filled with interview with some of the people who knew and worked with Schwartz. You’ll hear from people like Jay Abraham, Martin Edelston, Brian Kurtz of Boardroom (a client of Schwartz) and others.

Next step....

If you’re going to buy a book on copywriting this year, or this decade, I would recommend this one. It is truly excellent and I will be reading it again myself.

And with this offer only, you’ll also get the CD set and video. They make the perfect complement to Swartz’s book, and you won’t find this complete package anywhere else.

My advice?

Find out more and grab a copy of Breakthrough Advertising while you can...

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