on sales, I headlined an advertisement Sears makes a profit of 5 per cent. This specific was more persuasive than saying that Sears’ profit was ‘less than you might suppose’ or something equally vague. Specifics are more credible and more memorable than generalities. That is why I specified that Sears’ profit is less than 5 per cent. When you put your headline in quotes, you increase recall by an average of 28 per cent. When you advertise in local newspapers, you get better results if you include the name of each city in your headline. People are most interested in what is happening where they live. A psychologist flashed hundreds of words on a screen and used an electric gadget to measure emotional reactions. High marks went to darling. So I used it in a headline for Dove. Some copywriters write tricky headlines – double meanings, puns and other obscurities. This is counter-productive. In the average newspaper your headline has to compete with 350 others. Readers travel fast through this jungle. Your headline should telegraph what you want to say. Some headlines are ‘blind.’ They don’t say what the product is, or what it will do for you. They are about 20 per cent below average in recall. Since headlines, more than anything else, decide the success or failure