Serious students of direct response advertising will know the following famous and shocking headline:
“READ THIS OR DIE”
This headline appeared on a Phillips Publishing bookalog back in the early 2000s. It supposedly got Phillips more than 100k new subscribers at $39 a year.
The payoff for the shocking headline starts right in the subhead:
“Today you have a 95 percent chance of dying from a disease or condition for which there is already a known cure somewhere on the planet.”
The rest of the copy continues in this vein, using a bunch of statistics and facts to prove to you that most deadly diseases are now curable or preventable.
“Read this or die” was written by Jim Rutz. Rutz himself was a serious student of direct response advertising.
So is it possible that Rutz, though he was famous for being off-the-wall, creative, and unique-sounding, actually swiped his famous ad?
I would say it’s certainly possible.
Because I am yet another serious student of direct response advertising. And today I found an old ad, from 1926, which reads exactly like Rutz’s “Read this or die” ad. The headline of that 1926 ad runs:
“What will cause your death — and when?”
The payoff for the shocking headline starts right in the subhead:
“If you value your health and life here are some facts that will shock you into thinking more about your body. it is almost beyond belief, yet true, that eight hundred thousand people die in the United States every year of preventable disease.”
The rest of the copy continues in this vein, using a bunch of statistics and facts to prove to you that most deadly diseases are now curable or preventable.
The offer at the end of this ad was the Encyclopedia of Physical Culture, a massive book in six volumes, which sold for $600 in today’s money.
The Encyclopedia was sold with many different ads, but I only found one instance of “What will cause your death — and when?” online.
Maybe the ad ran in many places, but only one of these is archived online.
It’s also possible that the ad only ran once in this exact form.
In any case, a few things are sure:
1. The Encyclopedia of Physical Culture sold out at least 8 editions between 1911 and 1928…
2, Bernarr MacFadden, the author of the Encyclopedia, was worth $30 million as a result of his publishing activities (around half a billion in today’s money)…
3. The Encyclopedia was read broadly by generations of impressionable young men, and ended up a huge influence on America’s ongoing obsession with diet, health, and fitness.
All of which is to say:
That “What will cause your death” ad might be worth reading. Assuming, that is, that you’ve got an ongoing obsession with seeing what makes people tick… what they want to become… and what they are willing to pay for, at least when it comes to their health.
In case you are interested, you can see the entire ad at the link below. Before you click away, you might want to sign up to my newsletter here. Now here’s the ad: