If-then promise

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 headline opens with 'if you missed it', so the only reader it speaks to is the one who already wanted the issue and failed to get it. The rest removes every excuse in order: a new printing, one named place to buy it, 'at the regular price' in its own line, and a free portrait of Nasser tucked in with the copy. In a month of national mourning, the gift turns a reprint into a keepsake.

The big idea

A second chance for the reader who missed it: the Nasser commemorative issue is back in a fifth printing, at the usual price, with his portrait as a gift.

The offer

The fifth printing of al-Musawwar's Nasser commemorative issue, for Ramadan, at the regular price of 5 piastres, with a free portrait of the president, at the Dar al-Hilal stand, Sayyidna al-Husayn book market.

The proof

It is the fifth printing, so the issue has already been through four runs.

Lines from the ad

إذا كان قد فاتك العدد التاريخى التذكارى من المصور

If you missed al-Musawwar's historic commemorative issue

بالسعر العادى

At the regular price

ومع العدد هدية

And with the issue, a gift

Steal this when

Use it when a sold-out product comes back and the people who missed the first run are the ones you need to reach.

The emotion

Written to Regret. It makes the Say move.

'If you missed' speaks to readers who regret missing the Nasser issue and lowers the cost of that miss: a fifth printing, one named stand, the regular 5 piastre price, and a free portrait.