Gary Halbert Ad #4: "Amazing New Formula from Beverly Hills Lets You Look Years Younger"

Gary Halbert is remembered for a lot of things.

* The writer of the most mailed sales letter in history: "The Coat of Arms Letter."

* A gifted and profound teacher who's probably influenced more direct response practitioners today than any other.

* A pirate in business. Especially in later years.

One of the things he's not as well known for, yet was a world class master of, is the space ad.

Gary took a perverse pleasure in coming up with some of the weirdest pseudonyms in his early display ads.

When I saw him at Gary Bencivenga's seminar in 2005, I complimented him on them and we talked about these early ads.

(Leave a brief comment if you are interested in some of these early ads.)

This one was written 21 years ago for Tova Borgnine and is a textbook example of a direct response ad for a beauty product.

Though the "reason why" and U.S.P are compellingly stated in this concise ad, the biggest take away however, is the response boosting nuance in the last paragraph.

If you are in the Southern California Area, you may pick up the product at 8920 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, California, between the hours of 8:30 to 5:30 Monday to Friday.

In Gary's opinion, this one little closing paragraph boosted response to this ad by at least 50%.

Why?

There were no customer lines on Wilshire Boulevard. Almost no one showed up to pick up the product in person.

What this paragraph did was strengthen the association between the product and it's place of origin — Beverly Hills — a place that's loaded with connotations of wealth, beauty and luxury.

More importantly, it persuaded even the most skittish prospect that, yes, this is a bona fide product from a legitimate company…so much so that they invite you to their Beverly Hills location to pick it up.

Devilishly reassuring.

Here is a large image of: "Amazing New Formula from Beverly Hills Lets You Look Years Younger."