“We’ve spent a fortune,” screamed the red-faced exec, “but this damn thing still won’t sell! What the hell am I paying you people for?
The gray suits around the table hung their heads.
The time was 1911.
The executives at Colliers Publishing had heard an incredible idea. It came from Harvard University President Charles Eliot.
Eliot said any man could get a world-class education in 15 minutes a day, just by reading a few books. All the books could fit onto a 5-foot shelf.
So the Collier’s people asked Eliot which books exactly… and Dr. Eliot’s Five Foot Shelf was born.
Collier’s ran ads in their own magazine to get leads for the Five Foot Shelf. The ads talked about the joy and satisfaction of owning and reading great books. They featured the Harvard coat of arms.
And yet the damn thing wouldn’t sell. It looked hopeless. But it turned around, by accident.
Advertising man Bruce Barton had to fill some empty advertising space. So he flipped open one of Dr. Eliot’s great books and landed on a picture of Marie Antoinette in a rickety peasant cart. He ripped the picture out. And he scribbled the headline above it:
“This is Marie Antoinette riding to her death. Have you ever read her tragic story?”
According to Barton, Marie Antoinette outpulled the old “joy and satisfaction” ads 8-to-1. She kept running successfully for years, and helped sell hundreds of thousands of copies of the Five Foot Bookshelf.
This shows the power of a dramatic snapshot. This is a great way to start your sales letters, advertorials, and even emails.
Of course, that’s not the only good thing Barton’s ad has going for it.
The whole thing is full of copywriting and marketing tricks which worked in 1921… and continue to work in 2021. It might be worth taking a look and seeing how many you can spot.
And if you’d like to do that, I’ve tracked down a copy of Bruce Barton’s original Marie Antoinette ad for you. You can find it below. And if you’d like more occasional trips down 1911 marketing lane, you can sign up for my email newsletter here.
