Confessions of a veteran white-haired artist:
The Anatomy of a direct-mail WINNER!
Subject of the autopsy: Digest-size bookalog; 48-pages, full-color
Client category: Vitamins and Health Supplements
Writer: Carline Anglade-Cole
Designer: Larry Owen
“The Shocking Truth About Chlorella”
I chose this direct-mail Bookalog to examine because:
a. It is a very recent 2008 package
b. Carline Anglade-Cole was the copywriter
c. Carline’s copy strategy is clever and unique
d. It posed interesting graphic design challenges
e. I think I was able to overcome these design challenges
f. It’s a WINNER!
The covers of this bookalog get attention. “The Shocking Truth About Chlorella” … reader, take WARNING! … Suggesting there’s something inherently WRONG with this popular health remedy — even though it outlines on the same cover the many health benefits of the supplement. Tricky.
The back cover even suggests this nutrient might be ILLEGAL! Ban it!?
The copy actually promotes a product by seemingly putting it down. It’s a clever bait-and-switch that reveals itself inside, where we want the reader to go.
The curious reader, stimulated, reads on. Only after many pages of selling the health benefits of the remedy is the secret warning revealed: the client’s chlorella is the ONE chlorella that’s any good.
This strategy is the brainchild of Carline Anglade-Cole, a diversely talented health writer with contagious enthusiasm. I delight in the fact I designed her first blockbuster winning health magalog in 1999, “The Forbidden Secrets of SEX and HEALING.”
First, I’ll frame my thoughts about the mechanics of this “Shocking Truth” bookalog design, then I’ll outline the 8 identifiable inherent challenges I had to satisfy. This should be helpful to both copywriters and artists.
