Dramatic Sales Writing

Does negative advertising work?

Some people posted the assertion to a copywriting
board that negative advertising did not
work, and gave SCIENTIFIC ADVERTISING by Claude
Hopkins as their reference.

Someone else, a former TV writer, replied that
negative ad campaigns have worked, and mentioned
some.

I have to sit back and ask -- how does anybody know?

I think that many times people believe an ad
campaign is successful because they can tell
from their own response and from other people
that the ads have raised brand awareness.

That does not mean that the ad campaign increased
sales -- or increased sales enough to more than
pay back the cost of the advertising.

And these things are proprietary information.
Unless you work for the advertiser or for the
agency itself, you cannot know.

I've read marketing articles and books where the
author said that they knew from their industry
contacts that many well-known and well-regarded,
award-winning campaigns were a bust at the
cash register!


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