An Irish Toilet Education

So as a marketing nut, I'll confess I have a hard time switching my brain "off." Even when, well, I should be focusing on other things (we won't go there - my little brother would say this would be a great opportunity to share some toilet humor!).

Ahem. Where was I?

That's right. I was in Ireland recently. Belfast to be exact. I had wandered into this very swanky, high end homeware store - kind of shabby chic meets ultra cool hipster with very good design taste. It was the kind of place that you walk into and you pretty much want to buy everything in sight.

Anyhow - I was with my daughter (who's 1 1/2), and suffice it to say that after about 30 seconds of looking around we had to make an urgent beeline for the rest rooms, pronto at the back of the store .

We hacked our way through the crowd (if you missed my blog post about the ridiculously insane shopping experience at the post Christmas Irish sales you can read it here) and...stood in line.

Now I always say to my coaching students, you just never quite know where you're going to pick up a great marketing education. Admittedly, a toilet wall isn't usually what springs to mind.

But there plastered all around us were these fabulous old magazine ads selling beauty products. As a professional copywriter, one of the our little industry secrets is that the very best way to sell to people today is to go back to the great ads from the old days to swipe great ideas from.

You see, for all our fandangled new widgets, people are people are people. And the way they were sold to in the 30s works exactly the same way as selling to someone in 2012.  We all still buy stuff based on the same 17 psychological triggers that are hard wired into our DNA.

So, take a walk in the past, check out this cool ad, and let me know what you think. Look how incredibly powerful the headline and subheading are - its genius.

Now its your turn. Go back to your own advertising and see how you can transfer some of that magic copy to use in your own headline ...