Table Of Content03
CRAIN
My
Life in
Advertising
&
Scientific Advertising
Two Works by Claude C. Hopkins
'Nobodyshould beallowed to have anything
to do with advertisinguntilhehas read
this book (ScientificAdvertising) seven
times. It changedthe course ofmy life"
—David Ogilvy
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My
Life in
Advertising
&
Scientific Advertising
Digitized by the Internet Archive
2013
in
http://archive.org/details/mylifeinadvertisOOhopk
My
Life in
Advertising
8c
Scientific Advertising
Two Works by Claude C. Hopkins
NTC
Business Books
a division ofNTC Publishing Group • Lincolnwood, Illinois USA
Advertising Age Library
Confessions ofan Ad Man David Ogilvy
My Life in Advertising/Scientific Advertising Claude Hopkins
The Diary ofan Ad Man James Webb Young
How to Become an Advertising Man James Webb Young
The Lasker Story Albert D. Lasker
The Art of Writing Advertising Dennis Higgins
Marion Harper Russ Johnston
1993 Printing
PublishedbyNTC Business Books,adivisionofNTC PublishingGroup,
4255WestTouhyAvenue,Lincolnwood (Chicago), Illinois60646 1975U.S.A.
© 1966byCrainCommunicationsInc.All rightsreserved.
Nopartofthisbookmaybe reproduced,storedin a retrievalsystem,or
transmittedinanyform,orbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying
orotherwise,withoutthepriorwritten permissionofNTC PublishingGroup.
Manufacturedin the UnitedStatesofAmerica.
23456789 ML987
Foreword
s
ome one is always reprinting Claude Hopkins.
In 1923 he wrote a slender book which was pub-
lished by the advertising agency of Lord & Thomas
(lineal antecedent of the Foote, Cone & Belding
advertising agency of today). He called it "Scien-
tific Advertising," and almost 30 years later it was
re-published by Alfred Politz, eminent researcher
and devotee of scientific marketing and advertising,
because "the most concentrated wealth of useful
discoveries [about advertising] was presented by
Claude Hopkins" and because "present-day adver-
tising research has a long way to go before it
reaches the level of Claude Hopkins' contributions
to efficient advertising."
In 1927 Mr. Hopkins wrote an autobiographical
work, "My Life in Advertising," which first was
vi
serialized in Advertising and Selling magazine and
subsequently was published in book form by Har-
per. In 1933 you could buy a copy [even one per-
sonally autographed by his widow—Claude had
died in 1932] for 10 cents at almost any second-
hand book store.
But by 1946 Advertising and Selling was reprint-
ing the volume, with an interpretive foreword by
Walter Weir, who concluded:
"There are few pages in "My Life in Advertising"
which do not repay careful study—and which do
not merit rereading. Before your eyes, a successful
advertising life is lived—with all that went to make
it successful. The lessons taught are taught exactly
as they were learned. They are dished up dripping
with life. It is not a book, it is an experience—and
experience has always been the great teacher."
• « «
So here we are again, reprinting Claude Hopkins,
in an edition which contains both "Scientific Ad-
vertising" and "My Life in Advertising" for the edi-
fication of a generation of advertising men largely
made up of the great grandchildren of Claude
Hopkins and his contemporaries.
Hopkins is hopelessly out of date, and amazingly
current. He was the outstanding copywriter and
strategist of his time; he made $100,000 a year and
more writing advertising when that kind of money
was important even to the U. S. Treasury. He
talked about scientific advertising in an era when
vii
there was very little science, and much of what he
says seems terribly dated to the sophisticates of
today. Some of it, indeed, is dated, or disproven;
times and circumstances have changed. But despite
it all, Claude Hopkins laid down guidelines that are
too important, too eternal, to be forgotten.
The reader will find himself alternately shaking
his head in violent disagreement, and applauding
vigorously in complete agreement. He will be an-
noyed at Hopkins' conceit and arrogance, intrigued
with his stories, and impressed with his short,
staccato sentences—a pre-Flesch example of the
best in punching home a message. Short. Simple.
To the point. Like this, from the first chapter of his
autobiography:
"I am sure I would fail if I tried to advertise the
Rolls-Royce, Tiffany & Co. or Steinway pianos. I
do not know the reactions of the rich. But I do
know the common people. I love to talk to laboring-
men, to study housewives who must count their
pennies, to gain the confidence and learn the am-
bitions of poor boys and girls. Give me something
which they want and I will strike the responsive
chord. My words will be simple, my sentences short.
Scholars may ridicule my style. The rich and vain
may laugh at the factors which I feature. But in
millions of humble homes the common people will
read and buy. They will feel that the writer knows
them. And they, in advertising, form 95 percent of
our customers."
viii
Claude Hopkins was an advertising pioneer. He
blazed new trails. But he considered himself a
cautious man, one who based his advertising on
"fixed principles and done according to fundamen-
tals." That is why his words are always being re-
printed. That is why neophyte and expert alike will
find his words stimulating, helpful, entrancing.
S. R. Bernstein, President,
Advertising Publications, Inc.
