Introduction Gene Schwartz. Direct Response Copywriter Email Archive June 2019 1.

Copywriters You Should Know. Part 3. Gene Schwartz.

Eugene Schwartz was an art collector.

He was so well known for his collection that, when he died, the New York Times wrote about his life in the art world, barely mentioning that he was one of the greatest marketing minds and copywriters of the latter half of the 20th Century.

You can read his obituary here.

Schwartz was clearly a very bright and learned man. I’m told his apartment was stacked with books. There was also a huge dichotomy between his academic writing and his copy.

For example, Breakthrough Advertising is one of the most intellectual books ever written on marketing. It’s dense and takes a while to get through.

But look at some of Schwartz’s copy and it’s very simple, very direct.

I bought a product that provided access to many of the ads Schwartz wrote.

Here’s one.

Here are some random thoughts about Schwartz.

Everyone in marketing should read and digest Breakthrough Advertising. It’s a difficult book to understand. It used to be difficult to find but Brian Kurtz has been reprinting the Schwartz oeuvre.

Many of the ads Schwartz wrote push the envelope. There are some big claims that might get you in trouble today.

The products Schwartz was selling several decades ago are the same products direct marketers are selling today. Heating pads for pain, for example. A cure for everything.

One of my copywriting heroes, Herschell Gordon Lewis, was not a big fan of exclamation marks. And I’m with him. But Schwartz uses them just about every sentence!

Schwartz used to write for Boardroom and wrote one of the very first ads for the company. Instead of pay, Schwartz would get access to the Boardroom list then sell his own products to the list. That’s entrepreneurship, my friends. And independence.

He was obviously extremely independent. He had a career with an advertising agency, then left to be a freelancer. He never returned to the agency world.

To stay in touch with what was really going on in the world, Schwartz read The National Enquirer every week. I'm told he went to see the most popular movies.

He was famous for meticulous research.

His books include tomes about how to learn. There’s also one about religion. It’s titled … Three Religions - One God: A Compendium of Historical Accounts of the Three Abrahamic Religions. How many direct response copywriters have written a book like that? Not many.

Pay very close attention to his headlines.

Perhaps one of these days someone will write a biography of Gene Schwartz. He was clearly an accomplished copywriter but he was much more.

I can only imagine what a day in his life would have been like.

Wake up in New York penthouse on Park Avenue. Write copy. Read National Enquirer. Talk to clients. Buy art/chat with dealers. Visit Metropolitan Museum of Art. Write a marketing masterpiece. Research Abrahamic Religions. Dinner at New York restaurant with very important people? Rinse. Repeat.

His life is perhaps proof that copywriters are among the more interesting and curious people on our planet. Right?

I encourage you to study his books but also take a close look at his copy. His style would work today.

Scott Martin Direct Response Copywriter

P.S. Next email, I'll write about Gary Bencivenga.