Ali Hassan and Mohammed Ali key copying by post ad, al-Kawakib 1958
American University in Cairo, Rare Books and Special Collections Library. al-Kawakib. RBSCL believes this item is in the public domain.
The pattern
This still is filed under If-then promise.
Define
A conditional contract: if you do this, you get that. The sentence can be tested against the reader's own case.
Mechanism
Specificity does the persuading. The if names the action. The then names the outcome. Hedging kills it.
Verdict
We can name both the action and the result without adjectives
Why it works
The ad is a simple contract: wherever you live, post us your key with stamps of a stated value, and we post back your key and a new copy. The reader does not need to visit the shop or trust a sales pitch, only follow two steps and wait for the mail. A drawn key with a known lock brand on its head shows exactly what will come back, and the full Cairo address and phone number make a small mail-order shop look reachable.
The big idea
Wherever you live, a key cut in Cairo is only a letter away: post your key and stamps, and your key comes back with a new copy.
The offer
Post your key with postage stamps worth 100 milliemes and get your key back plus a new copy, from Ali Hassan and Mohammed Ali, 7 Kheirat Street, Sayeda, Cairo, telephone 26370.
Lines from the ad
أينما كنت...Wherever you are.
ارسل لنا المفتاح بالبريدSend us the key by post
نرسل لك مفتاحك والجديدWe send you your key and the new one
Steal this when
Use it when a local service can be delivered remotely and you can state the whole transaction as one send-this, get-that sentence.
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