So, Hopkins ran an advertising campaign that explained how it took 16 hours to bake beans at home, and you could never make home baked beans digestible.

He talked about crispy beans on top and the mushy beans on the bottom. He also highlighted the process Van Camp's used to select their beans, the soft water that they used, and how they made the skins less tough by removing the lime. He also emphasized the steam ovens where the beans were baked at 245 degrees in sealed containers so no flavor was lost. Then finally he offered a free sample so customers could compare.

This particular campaign became a huge success for Van Camps. Yet it was the very same process that all the manufacturers could have told. But they didn't.

Here's another famous story from Claude Hopkins which you may have heard of:

Schlitz Beer were ranked 5th. in their share of the market. That was, until they hired Hopkins to do his makeover.

Hopkins' campaign took Schlitz from that 5th. spot to equal 1st. spot in just a few months.

What Hopkins did in these two examples and all the others he created, was educate people. The same is true today.

You cannot over-educate people.

Now maybe you're still thinking, anything from as long ago as the beginning of the last century can't possibly work today.

Then think again.

1908 Walter Dill Scott produces another classic on advertising: “Psychology of Advertising.” Maxwell Sackheim said this about this classic manuscript: “The only book on advertising I read as a youth was written by Professor Walter Dill Scott of North Eastern University and was titled: “The Psychology of Advertising.” l still think it is one of the finest books ever written on the subject – and that his formula for successful advertising has never been surpassed.

1911 Kennedy returns to Lord and Thomas as a freelance copywriter.

1911 Proctor and Gamble pay JWT to launch Crisco, its new vegetable shortening.

1911 Standard Oil , dissolved by the courts, invites Harrison King McCann to form an agency to service its disbanded divisions.

1911 Woodbury Soap launches its “The skin you love to touch” campaign. The first time “sex” appeal was used in advertising.

Around this time, copywriting started to become a "trade." Many newcopywriters appeared and agencies like Lord and Thomas actually set upcopywriting schools.

Some great sales copy by some great writers started to show. In my next article I will mention a few. All are well-worth studying.

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