If you've heard the story of a young Gene Schwartz working one day in the mail room and a few short years later becoming a mail order millionaire, then here is an interesting ad.

It was written in 1975 by the man who showed Gene the ropes in the early 50's, Cecil Hoge, the founder and president of the Huber Hoge, Inc.

The promise of this ad is essentially a stone's throw away from the internet marketing pitches that plague us today…but there's a key difference.

Most of those offers lack the sophistication of even hinting that they might not be for you.

Not here.

How many internet marketing offers actually state that you can "lose plenty?"

Brutally refreshing.

Took Me a Lifetime.

My method took me a business lifetime to develop. But it works!

My method is no panacea…just as mail order is not for everyone. But I can tell it as it is…to give you a real chance in the real world of mail order. Because otherwise, believe me, if you are ill suited to…or ill informed or ill advised about the mail order business, you can lose plenty.

Here is a readable image of Mail Order Moonlighting.

Is home study marketing the wave of the future?

It's got a few things going for it.

First, it plays to the "cocooning" behavior that happens during economic downturns. The term became popular during the last major recession of the 1990's.

Second, the idea of self-improvement and retraining strikes a mass cord during such cycles.

Third, home study courses have a high degree of inelasticity and can easily command hundreds to thousands of dollars. A "home study course" purchase is a lot easier to justify to one's spouse than a mere few DVD's and some manuals.

This was a popular insertion for Columbia University Home Study Courses from the 1920's.

This ad hails from direct response powerhouse, Ben Suarez.

It was written in the 1970's, yet it captures the essence of the business opportunity market, even today.

People are still looking for someone that'll take them by the hand and give them the secret to getting rich.

Everything is textbook in this ad from the headline to the product title, Recipe To Riches, to the hot-button subtleties like in this line:

"Even if your results are bringing you millions of dollars in sales, you can still work out of your own home with just a few members of your family and some friends."

With unemployment spiking and whole sectors vaporizing, like mortgages, real estate and finance, we may be in for a boom in biz-op advertising like we've never seen, including sophisticated ads with high price points for ex-Wall Street people.

Interestingly, the core concept of this book eventually transformed into the landmark work, 7 Steps to Freedom II: How to Escape the American Rat Race, in which Ben Suarez presents in great depth, his Net Profit Generation System (NP.G.S.)

About a month ago, I met up with one of the top marketers in his category, who also lives locally. We both agreed that the information in this book should cost at least five to ten thousand dollars.

It's been about two decades since I've been a "true" sports fan.

I like Winston Churchill's definition of a fan or fanatic:

"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."

I'm also partial to Eric Hoffer's The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements.

Well, on Sunday, my wife told me it was high time to come down from the Ivory Tower and melt into the Red Sea of beer-swilling, trash-talking Arizona Cardinals fans, even though her allegiance is to the New York Jets.

And it was fun, not just from a marketer's perspective.

The legendary copywriter, Gene Schwartz advocated reading junk, like The National Enquirer, as well as watching the explosion-dialogue-explosion-dialogue cadence of the Lethal Weapon film series to hone one's ability to communicate with the mass market.

For my part, I attempted to count the number of advertising messages during the game.

There were so many inane ones, I gave up mid-way through the first quarter. The only one that seemed to stick was FreeCreditReport.com. Perhaps, because it's an easy, three-word URL and appeared four or five times during the game.

Gary Halbert was a genius at stimulating the greed glands of the broadest swath of the public with offers like this.

How To Get What The U.S. Government Owes You!

320 almost secret ways to get something back for your tax dollars right away!

I'm sure if he were here today, he'd craft an offer based on the current credit and mortgage crisises.

Perhaps something like:

"How Ordinary Citizens Can Secretly Claim Their Share of the $700 Billion Bailout"

"Is spiritual peace worth three minutes a day to you?"

Though this was a frequent headline template in years past, it's rarely encountered nowadays.

It's very hard to beat for it's clarity and directness.

Other headlines in the same mold:

Is It Worth $2 To You To Banish Ugly Cellulite Forever?

Is It Worth 4 Hours In the Gym THIS Week To Avert a Heart Attack Next?

Is It Worth A 10 Minute Free Consult To Potentially Save 23% On Your Business Taxes?

Whether we're selling a beauty cream or a financial service or even spiritual peace, it's all about the right offer to the right market at the right time.

And in the case of this ad from 59 years ago, the timing of the offer to the right market is hardly a factor because it's evergreen. More on Is Spiritual Peace Worth 3 Minutes A Day To You? (Religious Advertising #14)

This is a 1979 ad for Howard Ruff's best-selling How To Prosper During the Coming Bad Years.

Though the specifics of this ad are fairly different from the 2008 Credit Crisis, the tone is a close enough match.

A handy ad for marketers to have in their arsenals nowadays.

Howard Ruff's, Ruff Times, had one of the largest newsletter subscription bases in the 1980's and he was at the height of his popularity during the gold bug fever of the late 70's and early 80's.

Two well known names today are Howard Ruff alumni: Jay Abraham and Doug D'Anna.

Ruff predicted an inflationary depression like the one that devastated Germany in the 1920's, as well as a collapse of the U.S. currency to be replaced by a barter economy.

In a way, he was in the vanguard of the survivalist movement, advocating the storage of a year's supply of dehydrated food, water purification devices and ammunition. More on How To Prosper During the Coming Bad Years (Gloom and Doom Ad #8)

Whatever unfolds with the financial markets in the next few weeks, marketers need a game plan and be prepared to act quickly.

Here's a lead generation ad for Howard Ruff's Crash Course for the Serious Amateur Investor: How You Can Be A Successful Investor In Good Times or Bad.

This ad appeared in New York City area newspapers one month after the 1987 stock market crash.

(Updated October 12. 2008) Last week saw the worldwide rout of the financial markets and squarely placed the current bear market among the worst in history.

Here is RON PAUL on the global financial crisis, the potential for economic depression and where we're headed. One of the few in Washington whose position on sound economics and the dangers of the Federal Reserve system have been remarkably consistent for decades.

(Appended to the appended post of September 14, 2008.)

Here's a partial list of the entrance keywords from search engines, visitors typed to arrive at this site today (9/25/08).

* "coming depression" 2008

* depression investing

* gold value during the depression

* how much silver will i need to survive the coming depression

* how not to lose everything in this economy

* how to make it through the coming depression More on Why You Will Probably Lose Everything In The Coming Depression

For people who are almost (but not quite) satisfied with their own cooking — and can't figure out what's missing.

• If your crepes are delicious but too heavy, see page 263.
• The gourmet uses of kosher salt? See page 3 and page 22.
• If your cooked shrimp gets dry or rubbery when you
keep it overnight. see page 136.
• If your fried eggplant tastes oilier than it should, see
page 176.
• If you sauté chicken livers perfectly but they come out
tough, see page 152.
•How to make bottled horseradish taste like the fresh
kind. See page 211.
•How to keep sour cream from burning when you cook
with it. See page 23.
• What to add to domestic paprika if you can't find the
imported kind. See page 69.
• A substitute for champagne sauce that isn't perfect, but
works. See page 97.
More on The Chef’s Secret Cook Book (Mel Martin Ad #16)