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 drawing of an old man in an armchair with his bandaged foot on a stool shows the sufferer the ad is for, and the headline names his complaint in the second person. The copy is a two-step regimen written as a condition: if you suffer, take the tablets, then rub the sore limb with the solution, and the pain goes. Pairing a pill with a rub doubles the sale and makes the cure feel complete.

The big idea

If rheumatism hurts, two Bayer remedies used in order, the tablets and then the Spirosal rub, bring complete rest.

The offer

Take the genuine Aspirin tablets in their pink wrapper, then rub the sore limb with Spirosal solution.

The proof

The Bayer cross on the seal and both packs, and the flat promise that the pain will go without doubt.

Lines from the ad

تتألم كثيرا من الروماتزم

You suffer a lot from rheumatism

اقراص الاسبرين الأصلية في غلافها الوردي

The genuine Aspirin tablets in their pink wrapper

فانك تستريح بعد ذلك راحة تامة

And after that you will rest completely

Steal this when

Use it when two of your products together make a fuller fix for one problem and you can give the buyer a simple routine.

The emotion

Written to Relief. It makes the Avoid mistake.

The old man with his bandaged foot on a stool is promised 'complete rest' from tablets and a rub, but only the Bayer cross backs it, with no sufferer's words or shown result.