Last week, my friend Ryan Healy blogged an interesting question.<\/p>\n
It was about misleading people in advertising.<\/p>\n
And how far is “too far” when telling stories in sales letters, where it goes from a perfectly ethical and legal sales tool to a blatant and misleading lie?<\/p>\n
One of his examples was the famous John Caples ad:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Very successful ad.<\/p>\n But, IMHO, misleading<\/em>.<\/p>\n In fact, here’s what I wrote on Ryan’s blog about it:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \nI’m going to give a counterpoint to the Caples thing.<\/p>\n I think his ad is highly misleading.<\/p>\n I am not judging Caples or anything. <\/p>\n But is it any different than if I wrote an ad telling a story about how a fictitious newbie copywriter beat a strong control ad right out the gate by 200%, and everyone in the forums he haunts was awe-struck and begging for him to reveal how he did it, and he said “It’s because I read Ben Settle’s ‘Copywriting Grab Bag’…”?<\/p>\n When, in reality, he did not read it because he does not exist?<\/p>\n I’d probably be strung up and cast out amongst the lepers if I wrote an ad like that. Maybe I’m wrong and am missing something with this, but that seems to basically be what Caples did.<\/p>\n Not judging anyone, BTW.<\/p>\n Just seems misleading to me.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Anyway, just one man’s opinion.<\/p>\n To judge for yourself, you can grab the ad here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n
\nI Sat Down At The Piano,
\nBut When I Started To Play…”<\/div>\n