How Do You Know if Advertising Works?

"There is no better test of an advertisement than whether or not it actually sells the product! In fact, it is the only true way of determining if your advertisement works."
-- John Caples, Advertising Hall of Fame

Truer words have rarely been spoken in marketing circles.

Legendary ad man John Caples

John Caples was a legendary ad man (Mad Man) who is probably best known for writing one of the most famous advertising headlines ever when he was a young copywriter in 1926: 

"They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano but When I Started to Play!''

The copy that followed was long. Several hundred words long, designed to solicit students for a correspondence course at the U.S. School of Music. And the ad was an instant and classic success, inspiring many imitations over the years. 

The ad that changed an industry

Caples went on to become an expert in direct-response advertising. According to his obituary in the New York Times:

“Mr. Caples was credited with pioneering many aspects of advertising, including copy testing and extensive research. He debunked humorous advertising copy, saying that ‘only half the people in this country have a sense of humor, and clever ads seldom sell anything.’ He also advised copywriters to ‘use words you would expect to find in a fifth-grade reader’' because ‘the average American is approximately 13 years old mentally.’

Mr. Caples was elected to the American Advertising Federation's Hall of Fame in 1977 and passed away in 1990. But his pioneering thoughts and practices about advertising live on.

The One That Gets Me Every Time...

I imagine I’m not alone. As writers, surely we all have that one word that trips us up every time we attempt to write it. Ok, maybe there are even more than one.

For me, it’s the word “bureaucracy.” Fortunately, I don't need to use the word all that often - which is probably part of the problem. But for the life of me, it never looks like it’s spelled right – and consequently, I always have to spellcheck it or look it up in a dictionary.

(Wait – an actual dictionary? Yes, I do use online dictionaries – but I also still have and regularly consult my bound, hard-copy, “old-school” dictionary by my desk… but that could be a whole other conversation…) 

Anyway, in the word "bureaucracy," it’s that crazy “eau” combination... and then the second “u” in the word that throws me every time.

I remember one of my friends in sixth grade telling me how her father taught her to remember how to spell the word "friend." She always had trouble with the "i before e" thing, as many do. She used a simple mnemonic (now there's a word that can trip you up!) trick to remember the correct spelling: you must "fri" (fry) to the "end." For the life of me, that old memory trick has stayed with me to this day and I still think of it often when I write that word.

Now if I could only come up with a similar mind/memory trick for "bureaucracy."

What's your killer word - the one that gets you stuck every time you write it?