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But don't count on this. Most of the time a person will
never alter his original impression. Most of the time he
will simply "edit" all new info that comes to him and
"process" it in such a way as to validate his original
opinion.

So; what does this mean when it comes to creating
advertising? What it means is your ad or DM piece should
give your prospect a life; should cause his pupils to dilate
as soon as he sees it.

Did I ever tell you that good poker players often watch
their opponent's eyes when they draw new cards? What they…

This is a totally involuntary reaction. Apparently, what
happens is that when we see something we like our eyes open
up so we can let in more light and see more of it. And,
conversely, when we see something we don't like we do just
the opposite; we try to cut down the flow of light so we
don…

Well, I have a theory about all this and what I believe is
that most (or many) of our decisions about how we like or
dislike something are made not in 40 seconds or the first 4
or 40 minutes but rather in the first fraction of a second
that we see something new.

And, I further believe that we unconsciously spend the rest
of our so called decision making time not really making a
decision after all but instead searching for justification
for the decision we have already made.

And, that's why I'm so careful about the "look" of my DM
pieces and MO ads. You see, I believe the "sale" or "no
sale" decision is largely made the instant a prospect sees
your ad and reads your headline.

I think that if your prospect gets an instant "lift" from
just looking at your ad, then he will start reading it and
looking for reasons to convince himself that the promise of
your ad is true!

And, if you don't disappoint him then you have a really good
chance of closing the sale.

Now, what kind of look will give the reader a lift? It's
short of tricky, really. But I think one thing that helps is
if your promotion has a "crisp" look about it. In other
words, the layout should be clean, there should be a lot of
contrast and it should look easy and inviting to read.

If you use pictures they should be, as a general rule, of an
upbeat nature. Do you remember that ad with the before and
after pictures of Christi Dean? You know, almost everybody
liked the look of that ad because the "after" picture of
Christi Dean was so uplifting.

By the way, before I forget one little-known fact that is
kind of interesting is that women like to see pictures of
women in ads and men like to see pictures of men.

I forget why. I just remember that surveys show this to be
true.

Oh, here's something else. That writer that I told you about
who wrote for Printer's Ink? Anyway, his pen name was Old
Aesop Glimm.

Incidentally, when it comes to direct mail, there are a
number of things you can do to make your package more likely
to give the reader a lift. First of all, you should use…

If you are using label addressing (and later we will discuss
when you should or not) you should use a tight white label
on a matching envelope.

If you are using stamps (and if you follow my advice, you
almost always will) you should, whenever practical, use
large colorful commemoratives.

Your letterhead should be dignified and non-distracting.
Your type face should be a serif face and you should make
sure your original letter (the one you are going to use for
camera ready art) should be typed with a carbon ribbon.

If you are going to use a second color in your letters to
underline words or something you should use RED. If you
enclose a photograph or a simulated photograph you should
make sure it does NOT look cheap, limp and soggy. Instead,
it should look crisp, clean, glossy and clear.

All those rules also apply to your enclosures.

I…

# Boron - Chapter 20

The Boron Letters - Chapter 20

Sunday, 12:56 PM

July 1, 1984

Dear Bond,

A long, long time ago Dennis Haslinger told me that most of
the most serious mistakes I would make in life would be bad
ego decisions.

I have found that to be true. I have made quite a few bad
ego decisions with women, many, many bad ones with money and
quite a few that put me in some sort of physical danger.

I am trying to avoid such a mistake right now and I am
hoping that maybe writing to you about it will help…

This time I was laying there completely lost in all this
rock and roll I became aware of someone screaming my name
and when I cut the radio off I could hear one of my other
roommates screaming at me and telling me to show some
consideration for everybody else and not to give him any
"back" talk or he…

Well, how about that? It got very quiet in the room and he
turned away from me and I remained silent.

It shook me up some. Not an enormous amount but some. All
kinds of things ran through my head. I wanted to explain to
him that I was sorry and didn't realize I was disturbing
everybody and, also…

And, I also thought of simply explaining to him that a
better way to handle a situation like this would have been
to simply tell me the volume was too loud and then I would
have voluntarily turned it down.

But I didn't do any of those things. What I did instead, as
I said, is I remained silent eating a little humble pie.

Well, Bondy, I think I made a good decision. But I'll tell
you, it's hard for me to live with. Unfortunately, however,
that sort of thing sometimes is a part of being in…