My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising (Advertising Age Classics Library) (Paperback)

~ Claude Hopkins (Author) "The greatest event in my career occurred a year before I was born..." (more)
Key Phrases: cost per reply, countless advertisers, vermilion wood, Van Camp, Grand Rapids, Quaker Oats (more...)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

McGraw-Hill authors represent the leading experts in their fields and are dedicated to improving the lives, careers, and interests of readers worldwide

Product Details

• Paperback: 318 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (January 11, 1966)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0844231010
• ISBN-13: 978-0844231013
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #93,039 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Advertising is salesmanship; Hopkins is formula for success, January 21, 2002

By	Just Bill (Grand Rapids, MI United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

The advertising profession of late has fallen off the shoulders of its giants Hopkins, Caples, Bernbach, Burnett, Rubicam, Ogilvy and others. Even direct marketing, the profession that most closely adheres to Hopkins' crystal clear, succinct approach, is often in danger of taking the road most travelled and following its advertising brethren into the heart of the woods to wander aimlessly.

I'm a direct marketer and adjunct professor at a nearby university. I not only see the value in what Claude Hopkins wrote nearly 80 years ago...I also see what happens when his simple formula for success is ignored, forgotten or never learned. We get Got Milk? ads (a waste of hundreds of millions of dollars that didn't sell one single drop more of the lactose-laden beverage)...ladybugs on rose petals and singing coyotes to sell a once-proud line of cars...and print ads that contain no copy and bewlidering images. We're not only not selling; we're no longer even communicating.

Hopkins to the rescue.

If you're a copywriter in the profession of marketing or advertising, or if you're a student wishing to gain the best education possible, Claude Hopkins' Scientific Advertising should be in your hands daily. Underline it. Quote it. Memorize it. Pledge allegience to it. Defend it at all costs.

This book will help you write more clearly, sell more powerfully and make more money for your clients than ever before.

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two Classic Introductions To Direct-Response Advertising, December 5, 1998

By	Edward B. Driscoll, Jr. (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews

Advertising man Claude Hopkins (1866- 1932) was one of the true pioneering masters of direct response marketing.

How much of a master was he? Hopkins routinely earned close to $200,000 per year (this was in the 1920's when $200,000 was a lot of money. Come to think of it - it's not exactly pocket change today!)

Hopkins invented many of the direct response techniques that my firm teaches our clients. He was a master at testing headlines for the best response. Heck, he invented the test marketing of ad campaigns doing small, controlled tests with a limited budget to make sure a campaign worked before spending large sums of money.

Hopkins was a master (and major proponent) of writing, clear, simple copy that anyone could read. He feared that too-clever copywriting would detract from the only function of advertising - selling!

(How many of today's ad pro's on Madison Ave. remember that advertising is supposed to sell a product, not build an image, not "get a company's name out"?)

Hopkins wrote two books. The first was 1923's "Scientific Advertising", where he lays out his theories on copy writing, headlines, test marketing, the appearance of direct mail and space ads, the importance of mastering mail-order advertising as a precursor to advertising anything else, and other key strategies.

In 1927 he wrote "My Life In Advertising", which is (obviously) his autobiography. While this book isn't as important a work as "Scientific Advertising", both have been out of print for years. In 1995, they have been reissued as a two for one book by NTC Business Books of Lincolnwood (Chicago), Il.

What's amazing is how undated the books are, especially "Scientific Advertising". If you want a quick primer on direct response marketing, you could do far worse than reading Hopkins, and employing as many of his strategies as possible in your marketing efforts.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Source of Modern Successful Advertising, January 8, 2004

By	James Sadler (Plano, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Hopkins is the father of modern advertisng. Arguably, his work, togther with John Caples's "Tested Advertising Methods," form the Bible of modern advertising. Both understood that advertising is salesmanship and understood how to apply sales principles to advertising.

All the modern giants of advertising still swear by this book. Ogilvy even claimed it changed his life (in advertising anyway, but who knows, advertising was Ogilvy's life). Despite the fact that Hopkins wrote with a focus on what we now consider to be direct marketing, his principles are applicable to all forms of advertising. Hopkins essentially invented many of the concepts that so many advertisers take for granted today, yet oddly, many advertisers fail to follow his advice.

Whether you are a copywriter or involved in advertising in some other way, you must read this book if you want to be a success.
All advertising before "Scientific Advertising" flows into it; and all advertising after "Scientific Advertising" flows out of it.