Hopkins, Claude

Definition:
(1886-1932). One of the great advertising COPYWRITERS of the past. In a short textbook, Scientific Advertising, first published in 1923 and reprinted in 1966 with a foreword by David OGILVY, he set out his philosophy of writing copy that would sell. He had decided as a young man that people liked to buy products and services; all they needed was a reason. So he pioneered the 'reason-why' style of copywriting, as he called it - often long, but always written in simple and direct language. Hopkins was also a believer in market research, once sending a team of interviewers from door to door to find out how people baked their own beans before writing an advertisement for canned beans with the memorable introduction: 'We have no secrets madam. We are going to tell how you - if you had the facilities - could bake pork and beans exactly as good as Van Camp's.' Similarly, he discovered 'film on your teeth', to the lasting benefit of Pepsodent, and made Schlitz 'the beer that made Milwaukee famous' and America's best-selling brand by advertising that the bottles were 'cleaned by live steam'. Ogilvy considers that he invented TEST MARKETING, product sampling, COPY TESTING, brand imagery, and the tactic of 'pre-empting the truth'. In 1908, when Hopkins was 41, he was lured from the client side for an annual salary of $185,000, which is close to a million at present-day values. He died in 1932, with a string of all-American successes behind him and a permanent place in advertising folklore.

Cross-References:
[Ogilvy, David] [copy testing] [test marketing] [copywriter]

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