Wisdom from Aesop Glim

<img src="https://copywriterspodcast.com/images/banner/copywriterspodcast149.jpg" /> <br />We’ve got another episode today in our Old Masters series. New York City, 1892: An advertising man named George P. Rowell starts a weekly advertising journal called Printer’s Ink.<br /> Decades later, another man, George Laflin Miller, started writing a column for Printer’s Inc., under the pen name “Aesop Glim.” In the 1940s and 1950s, Aesop Glim’s column was the Copywriters Podcast of the time, as best I can tell.<br /> I couldn’t find out much more than that about Mr. Glim, also known as Mr. Miller. But I did find in my bookcase the book “How Advertising Is Written — and Why.” This book has some terrific, unique ideas and techniques, and we’re going over them today.<br /> The book is concise, only 150 pages. But it’s powerful. Eight chapters, with three to nine meaty sections in each chapter.<br /> I’ve cherry-picked four key ideas that I haven’t seen presented this way elsewhere. We’re covering the bare bones of Aesop Glim’s ideas and filling in the blanks with our own examples and comments.<br /> 1) The substitute for inspiration — is saturation!<br /> Instead of waiting for inspiration to strike, saturate your mind with<br /> • facts<br /> • experience<br /> • knowledge about user experience<br /> “The trouble with inspiration is that — like luck or lightning — you can’t possibly tell when it will strike.”<br /> 2) Headlines - 3 steps<br /> Headlines need to “reach out from the page, seize the lapels on your prospects, and persuade them to read the first paragraph of your copy.”<br /> 3 steps of the job of the headline<br /> 1. select the right prospects<br /> 2. “arrest” them<br /> 3. persuade them to read your first paragraph<br /> 3) The Rudyard Kipling Secret For Copy - Minus One<br /> We’re going to have our first poetry reading on Copywriters Podcast. <br /> Title - I keep six honest serving men<br /> I KEEP six honest serving-men<br /> (They taught me all I knew);<br /> Their names are What and Why and When<br