The Emperor’s Thirty-Seven Keys (A Copywriting Fable)
Richard In the Moon Market, a notice-writer named Brindle wrote an advertisement that sold more than anyone could remember. It began with a widow and a locked chest. It contained thirty-seven…
Storytelling
Sun Tzu Walks Into A Seinfeld Episode…
Ray Bradbury found his voice by reading Melville and watching Universal monster movies. James Joyce built a modern epic by laying Homeric structure over a breakfast of Dublin kidney. Vladimir…
They Came for Gunfights. The Ideas Rode Along.
Nobody bought a ticket to a spaghetti western thinking, “Maybe this will sharpen my views on class conflict.” They wanted revenge. Dusty towns. Men who looked like bathing was a…
Pattern Interrupts: Turning a Bridge into a Life Lesson
The first day of school is so powerful because it sets the tone for the entire year ahead. One approach I used was starting with a single, unexpected image: a…
The Four Engines of Impact: How to Engineer Emotional Responses
“Just tell a story” may be one of the least useful pieces of marketing advice ever given. It tells you what to do, but nothing about how to actually do…