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How Hardcore Conservatives and Hippies Found Common Ground

By Tom Ruwitch

This is a story about how hardcore, ultra-conservatives found common ground with a bunch of hippies.  I know that seems unlikely these days, but it happened not that long ago. And this happening is loaded with business lessons. Our story begins soon after the turn of the millennium, in 2002, when the Internet was just…

The Story Behind One of the Greatest Ads Ever

By Tom Ruwitch

In 1925, John Caples was a rookie copywriter working on an ad for home-study piano courses. He drafted several headlines that he shared with his boss. Here are a few: “Can you play the piano? Neither could I three months ago?” “They laughed when I sat down at the piano. But when I started to…

Email Story: Betrayed by a Travel Brochure

By Tom Ruwitch

Back in the day, when people used to go on vacation, my mom, dad, brother and I packed up the station wagon and drove west in search of a ghost town. Actually, we were headed to some national parks in Wyoming and Montana. But I insisted we detour. The brochure I grabbed at the Stuckey’s…