Asia Pacific University Library catalogue

"This Dover edition, first published in 2019, is an unabridged republication of the work originally printed by Lord & Thomas, Chicago, in 1923".

"The book begins with a simple declarative statement: "The time has come when advertising has in some hands reached the status of a science. It is based on fixed principles and is reasonably exact. The causes and effects have been analyzed until they are well understood". In twenty-one concise chapters, Claude C. Hopkins then covers the essence of what he knew about good advertising. Beyond the points to be made about telling a story, using headlines and art, about being specific and providing real information, about using samples and testing campaigns, and much more, there comes through an attitude, a point of view about the best advertising that demonstrates why Hopkins was so good at it: For example, "To attack a rival is never good advertising. Don't point out others faults. It is not permitted in the best mediums. It is never good policy. The selfish purpose is apparent. It looks unfair, not sporty. If you abhor knockers, always appear a good fellow.... Show a bright side, the happy and attractive side, and not the dark and uninviting side of things. Show beauty, not homeliness; health, not sickness. Don't show the wrinkles you propose to remove, but the face as it will appear. Your customers know all about the wrinkles". There is a lot in this little book that would be useful to anyone entering any area of the business world, now a century after it was written. Beyond being an account of Hopkins's thoughts about good advertising, it is a window into the business world of a century ago and the early decades of the big American business of advertising"--