I’m working on my new 10 Commandments book and that means I’m reaching deep into my journal and processing all the research I’ve collected.
That’s how I came across a great marketing story I should have already used for an email.
This story involves famous ad man George Lois, somebody I’ve already written about in this newsletter.
Lois was a master of dramatization.
Back in 1960 or so, Lois was tasked with creating a commercial for the new Xerox 914 photocopier. The USP was Xerox’s new technology, which used plain paper for printing and made the photocopier easy to use, unlike the steam locomotives that were used until then.
Lois decided to dramatize Xerox’s ease of use by showing a little girl — his own daughter Debbie — using the Xerox 914 to make a photocopy of her doll.
Sure enough, the commercial showed Debbie skipping over to the Xerox machine and pushing two buttons. Out came a photocopy.
Overnight, Xerox became a sensation. But competitors were furious. No photocopier could be that easy to use! They filed complaints with the FCC for deceptive advertising.
When Lois was told of this, he nodded his head and said, “Yes, yes, you’re absolutely right… it was wrong of us to use a little girl to show how easy this machine is to use… we should have used a stupid ape!”
So Lois reshot the commercial, this time with a chimp in place of Debbie, and with officials from the FCC to watch as the chimp made its photocopy, all in one take.
Following this, Xerox became the biggest photocopier company, a huge tech behemoth for decades. They funded research that changed the modern tech landscape (they invented windows, the mouse, laser printers). And then they let Apple and Microsoft eat its lunch.
But! The point of this email is not Xerox’s business incompetence, but George Lois’s advertising competence.
More specifically, the point of this email is the power of agreeing and amplifying — chimp instead of girl — whenever anybody attacks or challenges or even mocks you.
And now I’d like to tell you about my Simple Money Emails training.
This training makes it so easy to write sales emails that even a little girl could do it.
I really hope somebody will challenge me on that, because I have video recordings of an ape that does it as well.
For more information: