Mark Ford once shared the following personal story in his newsletter, which has rattled around in my head for years:
AJ is one of the most brilliant marketing minds on the planet. We became acquainted almost 40 years ago when my boss at the time got into a joint venture with him.
The deal made both of them a lot of money, but it ended badly when they argued about dividing the spoils. AJ’s behavior after that was reprehensible. I was so disturbed by it that once, at an industry event, I actually challenged him to a duel. He declined.
Years later, we reconnected. I was still angry with him – but before I had a chance to bring it up, he said, very casually, “But of course I’m a hypocrite and a scoundrel.”
The moment he said that, I forgave him.
Maybe it’s the gossip in me, but I’ve always wondered who this brilliant marketing mind is in reality.
I have my own theory.
Maybe you do too, or maybe you know the true back story. In any case, the following two points stand:
1. The direct marketing world attracts many morally bankrupt characters, some of whom are very smart and very effective at what they do.
2. You can’t really tell much from the outside. The whole thing about marketing is presenting an attractive facade to the world, including of your own self.
And by the way, playing consumer advocate, which is kind of what I’m doing with this email, is just another way of dressing up that attractive facade.
Having said that, I would now like to sell you on signing up for my daily email newsletter.
You might rightly wonder why, having primed you to be guarded and suspicious, you should listen to anything I have to tell you now.
The fact is, people can be very good at presenting an attractive facade to the world — for a while. But it becomes hard to do it week after week, month after month, year after year. That’s why daily emails are one way to get a peek behind that facade, and see who is morally bankrupt, and who has some money in the moral bank.
And besides, you might get some good ideas about copywriting or marketing or persuasion from my daily emails.
Whatever the case, if you’d like to sign up, click here and fill out the form that appears.