On this Halloween 2026, I am revisiting a piece first published many years ago.
Since then, the marketing world has been transformed by social media, smartphones, video content and, most recently, artificial intelligence.
And yet something rather frightening has happened…
In many ways, the marketing industry seems to have drifted even further away from the timeless principles championed by the great marketers of the past.
Today, businesses can generate blog posts, emails, social media updates and advertising copy in seconds.
They can use AI tools to create images, analyse data and automate entire marketing campaigns.
Yet despite all this astonishing technology…
…many marketers still fail to measure results.
Many still don’t truly understand their customers.
And many still mistake activity for effectiveness.
Perhaps the most chilling discovery of all is that while modern marketers have embraced artificial intelligence, many have neglected the very human intelligence found in the classic works of people such as Claude Hopkins, Bruce Barton and David Ogilvy.
The result?
Far too many businesses are producing more marketing than ever before while generating fewer meaningful results.
So, before the demons of wasted advertising budgets, declining response rates and generic AI-generated content come knocking at your door…
…let’s hear some warnings from beyond the grave.
Let’s start with one of the early giants of direct response marketing…
Claude Hopkins and Scientific Advertising
In his classic book “Scientific Advertising” Claude set out his vision for the future of advertising and marketing…
“The time has come when advertising has in some hands reached the status of a science. It is based on fixed principles and is reasonably exact. The causes and effects have been analyzed until they are well understood.
The correct methods of procedure have been proved and established. We know what is most effective, and we act on basic law.
Advertising, once a gamble, has thus become, under able direction, one of the safest business ventures.”
I think it’s fair to say that Claude would be disappointed, to say the least, that his ideas and principles…his scientific methods…have been largely forgotten in today’s mainstream advertising and marketing world.
He would probably be HORRIFIED at the vast amounts of money spent on advertising with absolutely no effort to track and record the results!
If you haven’t already read “Scientific Advertising” then you can save yourself from the horrors of money BLEEDING out of your bank account because of ads and marketing that doesn’t work…
…by simply reading my introduction to Claude’s strategies and techniques in…
Next…this spectral figure was a GIANT in his lifetime…
Bruce Barton…Forgotten Business Genius
Once a household name…these days Bruce Barton is remembered by few…and fewer still know of…
The Seven Lost Secrets of Success: Million Dollar Ideas of Bruce Barton, America’s Forgotten Genius
Bruce might whisper to us about…
1. Revealing the business nobody knows
2. Using a god to lead them
3. Speaking (and writing) in parables
4. Daring people to take the upward path
5. The one element missing
6. Giving yourself away
7. Sharpening the knife
…and who knows what else? After all, this was a man who was not only hugely successful in advertising but also a best-selling author, leading philanthropist and with access to US presidents.
Finally…for the moment…here are some words of wisdom…along with some serious WARNINGS about the folly of much mainstream advertising…from a man widely regarded as the…
King of Madison Avenue – David Ogilvy
David Ogilvy at one time really was regarded as The King of Madison Avenue …and with good reason. He took a small boutique agency and turned it into one of the giants of the advertising world with successful campaigns for Rolls Royce, American Express and Guinness…and many others.
The following video is an in-house talk Ogilvy gave to the direct-response group at his agency Ogilvy & Mather. Although Ogilvy was best known as a classic “Ad Man”, he was always strongly supportive of direct response methods and indeed referred to direct response marketing as his “first love” and also his “secret weapon”.
Indeed, in the early days, his agency was largely built on the back of a direct mail campaign and later with a classic series of direct response style ads.
In this video he sets out his views…backed by his successful experience, of course…about the importance of direct response methods, especially being able to know exactly what is working.
He describes direct response as the realm of “knowledge and reality” versus the “ignorance” that abounds in general advertising.
And yet if the shade of the great man were to return to walk the corridors of a modern-day advertising agency…I think it’s fair to say that he would be MORTIFIED to discover that his advice and WARNINGS (including the most DANGEROUS word in advertising!) have been…well, ignored.
A New Spectre Haunting Marketing: Artificial Intelligence
If the spirits of Hopkins, Barton and Ogilvy could return for Halloween 2026, I suspect they would be fascinated by artificial intelligence.
After all, each of them embraced new ideas and new technology during their own lifetimes.
But I also suspect they would issue some stark warnings from beyond the grave.
Claude Hopkins would probably ask:
“Can you measure it?”
He would be delighted by today’s ability to track clicks, conversions, sales and customer behaviour with extraordinary precision.
Yet he would surely be horrified that many businesses use AI simply because it is fashionable rather than because it produces measurable results.
David Ogilvy might ask an even more uncomfortable question:
“Does the advertising sell?”
Because while AI can write hundreds of headlines, emails and social media posts in minutes, it cannot magically make poor marketing effective.
Indeed, one of the greatest dangers facing marketers today is the temptation to publish large quantities of content that says very little and persuades nobody.
And Bruce Barton?
I suspect he would remind us that people still respond to stories, leadership, purpose and vision.
Technology changes.
Human nature doesn’t.
Perhaps the biggest danger of all is that AI makes it easier than ever to create content that sounds impressive without actually communicating anything meaningful.
The businesses that thrive in the years ahead are unlikely to be those that simply use AI.
They will be the businesses that combine the efficiency of AI with genuine human insight, creativity and understanding.
Perhaps we are entering an era of Human/AI fusion…the age of the “cyborg marketer” and “cyborg copywriter”.
The partnership can deliver extraordinary gains in productivity and efficiency. But the human still provides the judgement, experience, creativity and strategic thinking that ultimately determine success.
In other words, the winners will not be those who replace marketing fundamentals with technology.
They will be those who use technology to apply those fundamentals more effectively.
The GOOD NEWS about all of this, of course, is that you can still take advantage of this wisdom from beyond the grave.
Whether you’re writing sales letters, creating online advertising, building email campaigns or using the latest AI tools, the principles remain the same.
- Measure what matters.
- Understand your customer.
- Test your assumptions.
- Tell compelling stories.
- Focus on results rather than appearances.
Do that and you’ll be operating on the side of knowledge and reality, exactly as Ogilvy advocated all those years ago.
The tools may have changed.
Human nature hasn’t.
And that’s something even artificial intelligence can’t rewrite.
Happy Halloween!