Lesson 1 of 9: The Background | Newsweek’s 1959 Classic Sales Letter by Ed McLean

Timestamps 00:00 — One of the Most Effective Sales Letters Ever Written 00:26 — Meet Carter: Literature Teacher and Close Reader 00:42 — The Two Worlds of Literature and Persuasion 01:04 — The Goal: Become More Persuasive Through Close Reading 01:39 — What We’ll Study in This Nine-Part Series 02:12 — Who Really Wrote Newsweek’s 1959 Sales Letter? 02:23 — Meet Ed McLean: The Copywriter Behind the Letter 02:43 — Ed McLean’s Career and Contributions to Copywriting 03:14 — The Sales Letter That Held Control for 15 Consecutive Years 03:32 — Why the Letter Eventually Lost Its Effectiveness 03:56 — The Evolution of Direct-Mail Marketing and Targeted Campaigns 04:19 — From Mass Mailings to Testing Multiple Versions 04:52 — The Impact of a Sales Letter Sent to 150 Million People 05:09 — Ed McLean’s Legacy as a Master Copywriter 05:27 — What’s Next? Reading the Entire Newsweek Sales Letter 05:39 — Coming Up: Analyzing the Structure of the Letter