“Gosh, What a Build!” – What a “The World’s Most Perfectly Developed Man” knows about marketing that most people don’t.

I was digging through some old comic books this morning and came across this classic of an ad. You probably recognize it. It’s been parodied and played upon for years and years and years. And it’s also made absolutely millions for “Charles Atlas” and his publishing company.

It’s also a great example of the “What are you really selling?” principle.

When I sit down with my consulting clients, the first question I almost always ask is “What are you selling?” And my clients usually spout something off about widgets or wombats or massages or “solutions” (God, I hate that word.) I let them talk. I let them prattle a bit. And then, when I think they’re just about out of steam, I jump in with “Ok, that’s great, but what are you really selling?”

Take a look at the Atlas ad, for instance. What he’s selling is nothing more than a book–a “complete body building class” that’s probably a hundred loosely bound pages of leg presses and squat thrusts based around the principles of “dynamic tension.”

But what is he really selling?
Pride. Power. Sex. In no ambiguous terms, this ad says “Buy this course (and no, we aren’t going to give you details on the course here, you’ll have to send us 2 bucks to learn more about it) and you’ll be ‘The hero of the beach.’”

Which is a pretty compelling promise. It’s a pretty big one to keep. But this ad–or ads very similar to it–have run for years and years and years in the back of comic books and magazines.

Honestly, I could spend another hour digging through and picking out things this ad does right (the “surgeon general” bit at the bottom right corner is a gem, as is the fact that they don’t try to sell the course in the ad, they just try to get you to send in for more info–a great example of the “How much are you asking for?” principle which I’ll dive into in another post.), but instead I’ll just point you toward charlesatlas.com and leave you with this little question: What are you really selling?

P.S. It might look old timey, but I found this ad in a comic published in 2001 (hence the website.) The Atlas folks know they’re famous for their ads, and they’re smart enough not to mess with a good thing.

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