Confessions of an advertising man

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1. jaworromJan 2018
   "Scientific Advertising" Claude Hopkins

   "Tested Advertising" Caples (4th edition or earlier only)

   "How I Raised Myself from a Failure to Success in Selling" Betger

   "How to Write a Good Advertisement" Schwab.

   "How to Write Sales Letters That Sell" Drayton Bird

   "The Robert Collier Letter Book" - by Robert Collier

   "Tested Advertising Methods" -by John Caples

   "The Lazy Man's Way to Riches" - by Joe Karbo

   "Break-Through Advertising" - by Eugene M. Schwartz

   "Advertising Secrets of The Written Word" by Joe Sugarman

   "Making Ads Pay" by John Caples

   "Web Copy That Sells" by Maria Veloso

   "The Architecture of Persuasion" by Michael Masterson

   "Influence The Psychology of Persuasion" by Robert Cialdini

   "The Adweek Copywriting Handbook" by Joe Sugarman

   "The Elements of Copywriting" by Gary Blake and Robert Bly

   "The Ultimate Sales Letter" by Dan Kennedy

   "Cashvertising" by Drew Eric Whitman

   "Write to sell " it is written by Andy Maslen

   "Influencing Human Behaviour" by H.A.

   "Tested Sentences That Sell" by Elmer Wheeler

   "Unlimited Selling Power" by Moine and Lloyd.

   "Writing for Emotional Impact" by Karl Iglesias

   Bob Bly's "The Copywriter's Handbook"

   "How To Make Your Advertising Make Money" - John Caples

   "The Copywriters Handbook" - Bob Bly

   "The Adweek Copywriting Handbook" - Joseph Sugarman

   "Sales Letters That Sizzle" - Herschell Gordon Lewis

   "Cash Copy" - Jeffrey Lant

   "Magic Words That Bring You Riches" - Ted Nicholas

   "Ogilvy On Advertising"

   "Method Marketing" by Denny Hatch.

   "My First 50 Years in Advertising" by Maxwell Sackheim.

   "The Greatest Direct Mail Sales Letters of all Time" by Richard Hodgson.

   "How To Write Advertising That Sells" by Clyde Bedell

   "Ads That Sell" by Bob Bly

   "Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich" -- David Garfinkle

   "Magic Words" -- Ted Nicholas

   "Robert Collier Letter Book" -- Robert Collier

   "My Life In Advertising" -- Claude Hopkins

   "Bird" - Commonsense

   "The First Hundred Million" by E. Haldeman-Julius

   David Ogilvy's "Blood, Brains and Beer"

   "Confessions of an advertising man"

   "Million Dollar Mailings" by Denison Hatch

   "The Wizard of Ads" trilogy by Roy H. Williams

   "Making Ads Pay" by John Caples

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2. garethspriceApr 2017
   The Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth is probably the closest to an actual bible for computer scientists - hardly anybody's read it all the way through, people quote bits of it out of context for their own ends and it mostly sits on shelves looking impressive while gathering dust.

   The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brooks for tech management.

   Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy for advertising/marketing industry.

   Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software by the "Gang of Four" for OOP software engineering.

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3. niccolopOct 2010
   I think I have mentioned this before, but an excellent guide to advertising copy can be found in: David Ogilvy's Confessions of an Advertising Man (ISBN 1-904915-01-9).

   It's considered a seminal text among copy writers. I found it very helpful, for exactly this purpose.

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4. shrubbleAug 2025
   Also the author of a well known book, “Confessions of An Advertising Man”.
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5. libertineMay 2020
   Like I said in the first sentence, I wasn't criticizing the content, neither I'm saying flywheel is a new concept.

   Some call it flywheels, others call it engines, others call it funnel.

   David Ogilvy didn't name it in 1963, with the Confessions of an Advertising Man, but the concept was there:

   >Why did I write it? First, to attract new clients to my advertising agency. Second, to condition the market for a public offering of our shares. Third, to make myself better known in the business world. It achieved all three of these purposes.

   My point is that some disciplines look into have closed concepts, marketing discipline doesn't.

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6. akamakaMay 2013
   “Hard work never killed a man. Men die of boredom, psychological conflict, and disease. They do not die of hard work.”

   -David Ogilvy (from Confessions of an Advertising Man, 1963)

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