8/23/2026
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#430 How to Write Ads That Sell
Founders
Claude Hopkins was the greatest copywriter of all time. His ideas were so valuable that when he wrote them down in a book the founder of his advertising firm locked the manuscript in a safe for 20 years. When the book was finally published it sold over 8 million copies. David Ogilvy said that nobody should work in advertising until they had read the book seven times. This episode is what I learned by reading Claude Hopkins' autobiography My Life In Advertising and his legendary book Scientific Advertising. Made possible by: Ramp: https://ramp.com Applovin: https://www.applovin.com Vanta: https://vanta.com/founders Some of my favorite quotes: 0:00 — "Any man who by a lifetime of excessive application learns more about anything than others owes a statement to his successors." 5:12 — "The man who works twice as long as his fellows is bound to go twice as far, especially in advertising." 5:30 — "If I have gone higher than others in advertising or done more, the fact is not due to exceptional ability but to exceptional hours." 6:48 — "To poverty I owe the fact that I never went to college. I spent those four years in the school of experience instead of the school of theory." 9:08 — "Which is work and which is play? If a thing is useful, they call it work. If it's useless, they call it play. But one is hard as the other. All the difference I see lies in the attitude of the mind." 9:32 — "I came to love work as other men love golf. I love it still. The love of work can be cultivated just like the love of play." 9:58 — "We do best what we like best." 13:05 — "A good product is its own best salesman. It is uphill work to sell goods without samples." 15:00 — "We must never judge humanity by ourselves. The things we want, the things we like may appeal to a small minority." 15:23 — "We must submit all things in advertising to the court of public opinion." 17:48 — "Some of the greatest successes I have ever known in advertising were ignorant men. One wrote copy which would induce a farmer to mortgage his barn to respond, but every sentence had to be edited for grammar." 20:23 — "John Powers created a new concept of advertising. He told the truth, but told it in a rugged and fascinating way." 25:47 — "Study salesmen, canvassers, and fakers if you want to know how to sell goods. No argument in the world can ever compare with one dramatic demonstration." 26:35 — "The average salesman seeks favors. He seeks profit for himself. His plea is, 'Buy my goods.' He makes a selfish appeal to selfish people, and of course, he meets resistance. I was selling service." 28:45 — "We must treat people in advertising as we treat them in person." 31:23 — "Others have never told this story. It will startle everyone in print. I gave purity a meaning." (On Schlitz Beer jumping from 5th to 1st.) 32:03 — "Tell the pains that you take to excel. The maker is too close to his product. He sees in his methods only the ordinary." 34:08 — "The greatest two faults in advertising lie in boasts and in selfishness. People will listen if you talk service to them. They will turn their backs when you seek to impress an advantage for yourself." 41:23 — "People will do anything to cure a trouble, but little to prevent it. Prevention offers slight appeal to humanity in general. They want to be told of rewards." 1:01:30 — "Genius is the art of taking pains. The advertising man who spares the midnight oil will never get very far. This is no lazy man's field."
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