On the evening of April 26 1986, millions of homes on the eastern half of the US were tuning in to the spy drama The Falcon and the Snowman.
It was being broadcast on HBO. But not for long.
Soon after midnight on the 27th, the picture flickered and changed. The SMPTE color bars appeared along with a message:
GOODEVENING HBO
FROM CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT
$12.95/MONTH ?
NO WAY !
[SHOWTIME/MOVIE CHANNEL BEWARE!]
This weird interruption only lasted 4 1/2 minutes, but it had big consequences.
The next day, network news picked up the story.
People around the country got to jabbering about the unfairness of HBO’s prices.
HBO was furious, and they put pressure on the FCC to catch Captain Midnight, whoever he was.
Several months and an investigative manhunt later, that’s just what happened.
In July of that year, Captain Midnight was arrested and exposed as a 25-year-old electrical engineer named John MacDougall.
MacDougall lived in Ocala, Florida. He had a part-time job there at the Central Florida Teleport satellite uplink station.
Turns out, MacDougall also had a satellite dish installation business.
His business was doing well, until changes in HBO’s pricing turned people away from the idea of getting a satellite dish installed.
MacDougall’s business tanked. He was personally offended by HBO and financially hurt.
And so, while monitoring the satellite uplink of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, he made an impulsive decision.
He pulled up the character generator and typed up the above message. Once Pee-wee’s Big Adventure finished, he pointed the giant 30-foot dish straight at the Galaxy 1 satellite. And he jammed Transponder 23, which carried the eastern feed of HBO.
MacDougall’s message appeared on millions of TVs across the country, and Captain Midnight was born.
I thought this story was interesting. Almost as interesting as Richard Armstrong’s How to Talk Anybody into Anything.
That’s the little book Richard wrote about 44 points he learned by studying con artists. Point 3 is about how con artists choose their marks.
I won’t tell you what RIchard’s point 3 is here. You can find that at the link below.
What I will tell you is that, when you’re writing direct response copy, you might feel your prospects are gullible nincompoops.
But they are not. At least if they are good prospects. In order to sell big with direct marketing, you want to sell to people like Captain Midnight.
How do we know? Well, that’s what Richard Armstrong says, and he’s what you might call an A-list copywriter.
Richard’s How to Talk Anybody into Anything could probably sell for hundreds of dollars. Once upon a time, it was only available behind a paywall, as a bonus for RIchard’s novel the Don Con.
But right now, you can download a copy of RIchard’s 44-point con man guide, for free, without any obligations. In case you are interested, here’s where to go: