Problem-agitate-solve

The pattern

This still is filed under Problem-agitate-solve.

Define

Name the problem, make the cost of leaving it felt, then present the way out as relief.

Mechanism

Tension then release. The offer is not an interruption. It is the only door once the cost of staying is clear.

Verdict

The problem is known but not yet urgent

Why it works

The ad opens inside a fear the reader has already had, and withholds the product for six paragraphs while the fear is agitated, so the copy earns the right to diagnose. The diagnosis is the whole trick: a symptom the reader has always attributed to her nerves is reassigned to a specific external cause she can remove, which turns an untreatable personality problem into a purchasing decision. The illustration never shows a prowler - the menace is the sleepless man's own shadow - so the ad dramatises imagination rather than danger and stays honest to the copy's argument. Naming the exact figure 97% rather than claiming caffein-free keeps the claim defensible, and the closing box answers the obvious objection by insisting it is still real coffee.

The big idea

The late-night fright at a shadow on the window comes from the evening's caffein, not from nerves, and Sanka keeps the coffee while taking 97% of the caffein away.

The offer

Sanka Coffee, 97% caffein-free, in Drip or Regular grind and New Instant, from General Foods, with the invitation to start tonight. No price stated.

The proof

The 97% caffein-free figure, the assurance that it is 'all coffee, real coffee', the General Foods name, and a CBS radio show starring Danny Thomas.

Lines from the ad

Was that someone at the WINDOW?

Could it be the coffee you had?

YOU CAN DRINK IT AND SLEEP!

Steal this when

Use this when your buyer already suffers the symptom but blames the wrong cause, and your product removes the cause. Open in the middle of the symptom at its worst hour, agitate before you name anything, then reassign the blame and hand over the substitution.

The emotion

Written to Anxiety. It makes the Say move.

It opens on a night fright at the window, then names its cause: the evening's caffein, not her nerves, and offers coffee 97% caffein-free to start tonight.