Here's my take on the WAS ad:

- relies heavily on the WSJ brand awareness.

- has no headline - instead, uses the WSJ logo

- It's interesting how Conroy uses the story to introduce his paradigm: "The difference lies in what each person knows and how he or she
makes use of that knowledge". You can replace "knowledge" with just about anything, and it will probably make the same sense. (One could
argue that success relies on education, mentorship, real-life experience, access to resources, etc..... however it's funny how the story removes
the need to argue).

- I don't really understand why the story was so effective. I remember Harlan Kilstein talking about using stories and metaphors, gotta look for
it.

- somewhat similar to Joe Karbo's "it doesn't require..." - "It isn't native intelligence or talent or dedication".

- the letter is very generic, doesn't really give specifics about an issue of the WSJ. Makes sense - the letter was mailed for 28 years without
changes. If I remember correctly, a Newsweek letter was giving specifics - like "who will win the coming elections", etc.

- the story selects the target audience: college graduate, feels intelligent and above average, feels "personable", ambitious. I'd assume "below
average" students wouldn't be that interested in reading their way to success.

- the main reason why this letter was a success is (obviously) the story. It's funny how the new control also uses the same story.

- we know nothing about the two young men. Were they for real? Did the successful one read the WSJ? Yet there's no need for this info. The
reader subconsciously makes the connection for himself.

Very, very interesting article about the WSJ symbolism, here:

http://www.symbolism.org/writing/articles/internal/wsj/home....

Quote:

There are a number of interesting things going on in this simple two page letter which are not outwardly apparent to the reader. They
involve more the context and the symbolism of place than content. As Marshall McLuhan once said, "The media is the message". And so
it is with the "Two Young Men" ad - the context of the ad is really the message more than the specific content. What do we mean by this?

For one thing, the Publisher has chosen to start his story at a very important contextual point in time. It is that perennial time of the
journey from youth into manhood - a college graduation. In ancient cultures and societies this special event would be an initiation ritual.
But more, he has chosen to also highlight that enchanting and mysterious season of Spring. The ad starts with "On a beautiful late spring
afternoon". It is a deceptively enticing few words but notice the words "beautiful" and "late" and "spring" and "afternoon". It is the
"afternoon" of a period of life for the two young men and the beginning of another period of life for them. It is a time that has a deep
identification to all of us. A very important time - that time between youth and manhood.

Are we making too much of the context of time and the season Spring? We don't think so. By just the fifth word in the ad, the writer has
managed to slip in one of the most emotion charged words in our language - the word "Spring". It has been the subject of almost all of
our great works of literature in the twentieth century. In The Wasteland T.S.Eliot talks about this period:

"April is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain."

Quote:

Suddenly, we are brought into the present and placed at a college reunion. By the third sentence of this powerful advertising piece, the
reader has gone from a graduation - the most important place in the transition from youth to manhood - to a reunion - the most
important place for measuring the progress of adulthood. The symbolism of place is very important. More than anything else, a college
reunion is a type of barometer of success in life. And not just any college reunion but probably the most important college reunion - the
25th college reunion. After being present at the beginning of the "race", the graduation of the two young men from college, we are now
observers at an important observation point in the "race", the race of two lives.

Quote:

In the end, the reader is taken back to that time many years ago when he or she too graduated. There has been much "water under the
bridge" and maybe even a reunion where the reader gazed in wonderment at an old friend who has risen to the presidency of a company.
Like the Publisher the reader has indeed wondered why someone else and not him.
But sometimes second chances present themselves to you in life. And now, magically, a second chance has come to the reader through
 this simple little letter in the mail. And for a few magic minutes the reader is transported back to college graduation - a gate, a threshold -
the beginning of the journey of adulthood.

He may have a pile of work projects on his desk and suffering from a bad hangover the night before trying to forget about his new boss.
It may be the middle of the winter with a huge snowstorm whirling outside.

But no matter. For one magical moment it is again the late afternoon of one time of his life and on the verge of another time, another
great adventure. He is in that magical place called Spring once again. Once he sends in that little card. It is spring again and life just
might be able to start all over. Once again.

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Martin+Conroy%27s+famous+%22tw...

Quote:

"Alan Rosenspan, the president of Alan Rosenspan Associates, a direct-marketing concern in Newton, Mass., uses Mr. Conroy's letter as a
teaching tool in seminars.

"I ask people to read out loud the first paragraph of the letter. And what's astonishing a·ston·ish  
tr.v. as·ton·ished, as·ton·ish·ing, as·ton·ish·es
To fill with sudden wonder or amazement. See Synonyms at surprise.  to me is that they never stop at the first paragraph of the letter.
They keep on reading. And I tell them, 'You have just proven why this letter's so powerful. It's a story.'"

* The Times continues, "The direct marketer's task is to reel readers in--gently, firmly, imperceptibly--and keep them reading, despite the
looming maw of the wastebasket. Mr. Conroy's letter does so by spinning the hypnotic story of two young lives fatefully diverging."

* "Strikingly, the letter no-where says that the man who made good read The Journal. But the message is resoundingly re·sound  
v. re·sound·ed, re·sound·ing, re·sounds

v.intr.
1. To be filled with sound; reverberate: The schoolyard resounded with the laughter of children.

2.  there, between the lines Between the lines can refer to:

   * The subtext of a letter, fictional work, conversation or other piece of communication

   * Between The Lines (TV series), an early 1990s BBC television programme.

."

* The Times quotes Rosenspan again: "It doesn't start off by saying, 'Be rich beyond your wildest dreams and dominate your fellow
human beings.' But the very obvious, palpitating pal·pi·tate  
intr.v. pal·pi·tat·ed, pal·pi·tat·ing, pal·pi·tates
1. To move with a slight tremulous motion; tremble, shake, or quiver.

2. To beat with excessive rapidity; throb.  subtext--it's barely even a subtext--is greed and envy. So it's a lovely combination of a hard-sell
letter nested inside a kind of soft shell."