Albert Lasker

The very first ad to do sex in advertising

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Albert Lasker, known as “the father of modern advertising,” called it one of the greatest and most important ads ever.

Partly, because it looked and sounded classy.

Partly, because it drove up sales.

But most of all, because it was the first ad to feature sex appeal.

I’m talking about the Woodbury’s Soap ad, which you can find below, if you are the curious type.

For me, it’s hard to get aroused by the sex in this ad. Yes, because I grew up with the Internet. But also, because the sex appeal in this ad was mainly targeted at women, and women and I have differing tastes.

Still, I get aroused by this ad for another reason:

The Woodbury’s ad is an example of a class of ads from the early 20th century, which were not really direct response ads the way we know them today… but which still featured a direct response offer.

For example, the Woodbury’s ad features an offer to write in and get a print of the beautiful painting in the ad, without the company logo or the ad copy. Oh, and you get a sample of the soap too, all for just 10¢ worth of coins or stamps.

The thing that’s interesting is that making this sale isn’t really the point of the ad. After all, this ad continued to run for many years after, without the direct response offer.

My guess is that the direct response mechanism initially served to tell J. Walter Thompson, the marketing agency behind this ad, how effective this ad was in terms of capturing readership, interest, and brand recognition.

Which I think is something you can use today as well.

As I’ve written before, we are entering an age where brand advertising and direct marketing blend. Not just for soap companies. For your own personal brand as well.

And if you do some brand awareness work… whether that’s a podcast appearance… or a livestream… or even a daily email in which you don’t have a product to sell…

It can make sense to put in an offer. Not the real thing you’re selling. Something else.

It can be free. It can also be quick and easy, without any back-end setup. And yet, it can help you gauge how effective your spiel was… and how valuable the channel in which you delivered it.

For example:

If you write me an email, I will direct you to a cool resource for learning more about classic ads like the Woodbury’s ad. These ads all hold great ideas that you can apply to your marketing today. And you can get them in a resource that’s available for free, online — and that I’ve never heard anybody talk about.

Like I said, just write me an email, and I’ll tell you what this resource is.

Oh, and here’s a sample of the Woodbury’s ad, all for just 0¢ worth of coins or stamps:

Early success

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The gangly young man stepped inside the office and froze. He took a step to the side and pressed up against the wall.

His eyes darted from desk to desk. But nobody took notice of him.

Finally, he spotted somebody even younger than himself at one of the desks. He walked over.

“Hey buddy,” he said. “Maybe you can help me. My company has an account with you guys. They sent me down here because we just got some new business. I’m supposed to buy more ads. Can you tell me who I should talk to?”

The even younger man at the desk blinked a few times. “Actually,” he said, “that’s something I can help you with.”

The year was 1900. The place was the Lord & Thomas advertising agency in Chicago.

The young man who came looking to buy more ads worked for Collier’s Publishing. And the even younger man he approached was a 19-year-old Albert Lasker.

Perhaps you’ve heard of Lasker already. At 18, he started work as an office boy at Lord & Thomas. At 19, he became an accounts man. At 23, he became partner. At 32, he became CEO.

Under Lasker’s tenure, Lord & Thomas ran breakthrough campaigns, building brands like Palmolive, Pepsodent, Sunkist, Kotex, and Lucky Strike. And today, Lasker is known as one of the greatest advertising men of all time.

Lasker had natural talents that made him such a success in advertising, and at such a young age. But none of it would have happened — so Lasker claimed later — were it not for a few early successes. Like that Collier’s account, which landed in his lap thanks to his look of inexperience.

Early success.

I recently looked at the areas of my life where I’ve persevered and achieved something. This includes copywriting.

I made a list of common elements. There turned out to be three crucial things.

The first was an experience of early success. It gave me the belief to persevere when things got hard.

And vice versa. When I look at things where I failed… I find I didn’t have any early successes. Maybe I was following a process that was supposed to work. But without a signpost to tell me I was on the right path, it felt like wandering in the wilderness. So I gave up.

My point is that an experience of early success can be transformational.

Keep this in mind when you’re trying to retain customers or clients… or manage yourself.

An early success can come from blind luck and land right in your lap, like it did for Albert Lasker.

But with a bit of preparation, scheming, and maybe downright fakery, you don’t need luck. You can create an experience of early success with near certain probability. For your clients or customers or yourself. And once that happens… who knows how far you will go?

By the way, would you like to know about the other two crucial ingredients I found for long-term success in copywriting?

It’s something I haven’t written about before. But if and when I do, it will go into my email newsletter. You can sign up for that here.

If you wish to know what advertising is, read this post

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Imagine a classy and rich office, with two well-dressed businessmen standing side by side, leaning on a desk.

One of the businessmen is old, the other is young. Even so, they look to be equals. They are busy looking over a report the younger one is holding.

Suddenly, a secretary knocks on the door.

“Message for you, Mr. Thomas,” she says as she hands the older man a slip of paper.

Thomas unfolds the paper, and as he reads the short note, his eyebrows shoot up.

He shakes his head and hands the paper to the younger man with a smile. The younger man takes a look at the note. It reads:

“I am in the saloon downstairs. I can tell you what advertising is. I know you don’t know. It will mean much to me to have you know what it is, and it will mean much to you. If you wish to know what advertising is, send the word ‘yes’ down by the bell boy.”

The younger businessman, Albert Lasker, pauses.

​​What the note says is true. He’s been in the advertising business for a few years now. He’s had tremendous success. In fact, even though he is only 24 years old, he is a partner at one of Chicago’s top advertising agencies, Lord & Thomas.

​​But he still doesn’t know what advertising really is. He doesn’t why it sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t. So he’s been asking around — other agency heads, copywriters, newspapermen. Nobody can give him a satisfying answer.

Well, nobody except maybe the guy in the lobby downstairs.

You might have already heard this story of the first meeting between Albert Lasker and John E. Kennedy, the mysterious man waiting downstairs.

​​Lasker did send the word “yes” down by the bellboy. And after a lot of negotiating and finagling, which included buying out Kennedy’s ridiculously expensive contract as a copywriter, Lasker had his answer.

It was all of three words that Kennedy told Lasker. But these three words transformed the Lord & Thomas advertising agency, and they transformed modern advertising.

What Kennedy told Lasker is that advertising is not about keeping the company’s name in front of the public. It’s not about delivering news, either, though news can be useful. Instead, advertising is simply:

Salesmanship in print

For about a hundred years now, nobody’s been able to improve on that definition. Fortunes have been made by taking this simple idea and applying it thoroughly.

​​But things might finally be changing. Perhaps Kennedy’s definition is not good enough any more. Salesmanship in print is still important. But it’s not enough. And sometimes it can even hurt instead of help.

​​So what’s a better way to think of advertising today?

​​It will mean much to me to have you know what it is, and it will mean much to you. If you wish to know what advertising is today, take a look at the following page.

Persuasion WarGames

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In 1983, nobody cared much about the Internet. The web hadn’t been invented yet. There was no AOL. And 99.9% of Americans had never heard the word modem.

Back then, not even sci-fi movies had a conception of anything like Facebook or amazondating.co. It took a special kind of visionary to see the big future of this new technology — and the possible risks it could bring.

Among these rare visionaries was then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

​​One evening at Camp David, Reagan watched a recently released film starring Matthew Broderick, called WarGames. Broderick plays a teenage computer hacker who hacks into NORAD’s missle control systems, and almost sets off WWIII by accident.

A few days after watching the movie, Reagan talked to his generals. He wanted some answers. Is this kind of scenario really possible?

The generals and their minions got to work investigating the topic. After some furious paper folding and shuffling, they came back with a report. “Mr. President, the situation is much worse than you might think.”

To make short tale, Reagan ordered this situation fixed immediately. So the U.S. government and military tightened up their cyber security. Several months later, Congress passed a comprehensive cyber crime bill. It’s still the centerpiece of Internet security law today.

This Reagan anecdote shows the power of a story in persuading. But it’s also an illustration of something more subtle — but just as powerful.

I’m talking about a way to persuade people who don’t currently see any problem with the status quo. This can be used widely to reach unaware audiences, and is a clever way to stir up interest and action, without triggering the brain’s anti-persuasion radar.

But today’s post is already getting as long as the script to WarGames. Interesting note about that script:

It was written by Lawrence Lasker, a family friend of Reagan’s and grandson to Albert Lasker, the “father of modern advertising.” The elder Lasker was the owner of the Lord & Thomas advertising agency, which employed such legendary copywriters as John E. Kennedy and Claude Hopkins.

But like I said, today’s post is already getting long. So I’ll tell you about this important persuasion principle in more detail tomorrow.

But do you want me to send you an email with that update tomorrow? If so, sign up for my daily email newsletter here.