Herschell Gordon Lewis says there are marketers who sour the grapes others have nurtured. 
Sophisticates know ‘The Little Foxes’ as a stage play and subsequent movie based on the script by Lillian Hellman. Although on occasion small theatre companies still produce the play, the plotline is usually lost in history, because both play and movie date back [...]

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Herschell Gordon Lewis debates the disadvanges of opening the floodgates to social media.
The social medium MySpace had a good year. It lost only US$128 million last year. That’s only $28 million more than it lost the previous year.
The owner, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, isn’t happy. His pioneer social medium, once dominant, has lost ground against principal competitors [...]

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. . . or one of the winners? Herschell Gordon Lewis shows why the successful copywriter examines every word.
I was putting my too-heavy laptop computer back into its bag.
This session at the USA Direct Marketing Association’s annual conference (October, San Diego) had been reasonably successful, judging by attendance and participation. But apparently I hadn’t [...]

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Herschell Gordon Lewis reminds us of pre-web rules that are still highly pertinent.
Inevitably, as a marketer sophisticates his or her communications with both existing customers or clients and prospective customers or clients, sophistication leads to self-stroking.
Just as inevitably, self-stroking puts target-individuals outside the mix, instead of squarely in the centre.
The Four Great Laws may be [...]

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. . . says Herschell Gordon Lewis, analysing some of the latest communications techniques.
Ever hear of Jonathan Abrams? Probably not. Or if you did, his name isn’t a unique one, limited to one user.
Jonathan Abrams is credited with ‘inventing’ social media. His contribution to the dubious festival of such media was an absolute celebration of [...]

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Columnist Herschell Gordon Lewis is scornful of ‘expert’ advisors who actually preach the blindingly obvious.
Be glad you’re reading Direct Marketing International.
If you were reading another marketing publication, either in print or online, you’d encounter ‘expert’ opinions that would have you shaking your head in disgust as you conclude: ‘I’m more of an expert than that.’
Here’s [...]

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I’m not about to patronise a marketer who wildly uses initial caps and all-caps and triple exclamation marks.

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HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS explores the perceived wisdom of the use of negatives in copy.
In my callow youth, I taught English literature at a minor US university. There, I solidified my impious opinion that Wordsworth should have been considered a minor poet. But Wordsworth had a line in his ode, ‘Intimations of Immortality’:
‘The sunshine is a glorious birth.’
So [...]

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Herschell Gordon Lewis is ki…
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Herschell Gordon Lewis recalls the adland v…
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