Don't Always Make Direct Mail Headlines Positive

The most powerful headline I ever read and acted upon was a negative headline. It changed my life.

Yet most books on direct mail copywriting will tell you to cast your headlines, overlines and Johnson Boxes always in the positive. But sometimes being negative is positively good for business. Or, to say it another way, negative headlines in your direct mail advertising are not always bad.

The headline that changed my life appeared in a small display ad in the Daily Mirror, a British daily newspaper. Here