Copywriting Swipe File Library (2025)

Lady_T

16 years ago

I appreciate this...it got my creative juices flowing...

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  The Copy Nazi

  Banned 16 years ago

  Oh yeah! I love old press ads - everything about them - layout, copy, images. They were killer.

  I notice quite a few are from J. Walter Thompson - which used to be the world's biggest agency with offices in every major western country and some third world countries. I worked there. In the "olden days" when they took you on in the mail-room and then moved you round various departments until you found your groove.

  Every month or so they'd have a viewing of TV spots from all the other JWT offices. And they were killer. You'd walk out of the theatre totally inspired.

  But they never shared the press ads around. Don't know why. I think they may have had an in-house journal or something for that. Its a bit hazy in my memory - it was back in the Sixties after all. And you know what they say about remembering the Sixties. Um...actually, I've forgotten. Something about "If you can remember the Sixties - you weren't there".

  Thanks so much for sharing this.

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    Alex Cohen

    16 years ago

    Another good place to find old ads is Google Books Advanced Search ...

    Advanced Book Search

    I'm sure there's a ton of space ads from the 1970s to 1990s there.

    I recently did a search on "Green Tree Press" and found 6 space ads written by Bud Weckesser.

    You can learn more about Bud Weckesser here ...

    Bud Weckesser: Master of Case Study Marketing

    Alex

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      SMazinTX

      16 years ago

      WOW! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the words "Green Tree Press." It brought me back to my early days - in 1979, right after I started my first company in Dunkirk, NY - the original home of Green Tree Press and Bud Weckesser. I actually met him a few times and he gave me some advice on how to write a successful ad.

      Until this day I never knew I was getting advice from a copywriting legend. But I will say this - when I implemented his advice and created that first ad - I stirred up such a controversy and easily got a couple thousand dollars worth of free advertising. My new little business went from being unknown to the talk of the town.

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        gjabiz

        16 years ago

        Originally Posted by SMazinTX

        
        

        WOW! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the words "Green Tree Press." It brought me back to my early days - in 1979, right after I started my first company in Dunkirk, NY - the original home of Green Tree Press and Bud Weckesser. I actually met him a few times and he gave me some advice on how to write a successful ad.

        Until this day I never knew I was getting advice from a copywriting legend. But I will say this - when I implemented his advice and created that first ad - I stirred up such a controversy and easily got a couple thousand dollars worth of free advertising. My new little business went from being unknown to the talk of the town.

        I'm sitting in an office at Green Tree Press, Inc. in Erie, PA as I type this. It is my last week of a consultancy contract for GTP in which I prepared a complete Independent Marketing Appraisial for GTP.

        This past summer I've spent a lot of time at Green Tree going through their 35 year archives. A couple of points. This one minor.

        Bud started his company in Akron, OH, he was a professor at Kent State University at the time. He had a friend in Dunkirk who operated the fulfillment house for him until he moved the entire operation to Erie, where it has been for the last couple of decades.

        The other point, like the poster below says, you need to know the history and details of the ad, how it actually performed, if it was a direct response ad, and you need to know the life of the ad and the product.

        I'll respond to that poster's comments below.

        Bud Weckesser started with small classifieds in the Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, went to small space ads, and then mastered the art of full page space ads. He also pioneered the ads run on the front page of the LA TIMES Classified section too.

        gjabiz

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frankgotgame818

16 years ago

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Bigsofty

16 years ago

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  gjabiz

  16 years ago

  Originally Posted by Bigsofty

  
  

  Is there any indication of which ads did well - and which were a waste of time and money?

  Swiping dud ads is not going to help anyone.

  B.

  This is the MAJOR detail that gets left out of most swipe files. Ted Nicholas uses a one to five star rating system for his ads, he tells you which ones were successful, but even then, he leaves out important details.

  The MEDIA is just as important as the AD. An could work great in, say, the Wall Street Journal but be a total dud in another publication.

  HARD details to find. And it is significant for a copy writer to know the details too. Some are starting to argue that the PAST is dead and what worked is unimportant. Ask Dan Kennedy, a modern master, what he thinks about this "history is unimportant" type of thinking.

  So here is an example of a successful ad.

  The Headline: What is this woman doing? And a picture. You can see the ad on Bernstein's page that Alex Cohen linked to. This ad ran for over a decade, with at least 6 differetn pictures and minor changes in the copy that Bud wanted to test.

  So you know that ad was a winner, but how did it pull in various publications. It killed in the "Women's" pubs and did OK in more general publications. A variant, What is this man doing, featuring Bud instead of his wife Mary, was tested and....it sucked. So what is this woman doing ran for over a decade and sold millions of dollars of books for Green Tree Press.

  Now a more recent test by Green Tree Press made a remarkable discovery, they added ONE line of copy to the end of the ad and it REDUCED response by 20%.

  Can you guess what the one line of copy said? I bet you can if you think about it. They took this line out, and sales jumped back up to where they were before the line of copy was added.

  You are 110% right on, it does NO good to swipe from a dud ad. Even Bud Weckesser "borrowed" from the best selling ads of his day.

  gjabiz

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    David D.

    13 years ago

    gjabiz, can you say what the line Green Tree added was?

    Thanks!

    David

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    Deutsch L. Deutsch
    http://www.DavidLDeutsch.com

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      BrianMcLeod

      13 years ago

      Originally Posted by David D.

      
      

      gjabiz, can you say what the line Green Tree added was?

      Thanks!

      David

      DD makes the scene...

      And just like that, this thread got a LOT cooler.

      B <- owes you a phone call

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      Brian McLeod

      
      Direct Response Copywriting
      

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        David D.

        13 years ago

        Hey, Brian, good to hear from you, my friend!

        I keep forgetting there's a place where people discuss important things like old Green Tree ads.

        And you DO owe me a phone call.

        David

        Originally Posted by BrianMcLeod

        
        

        DD makes the scene...

        And just like that, this thread got a LOT cooler.

        B <- owes you a phone call

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        Deutsch L. Deutsch
        http://www.DavidLDeutsch.com

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n8

13 years ago

Abdoue- Great share my friend!

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