As a baby copywriter, I would often sneak across 3rd Ave from my office at Grey to have lunch with a good friend who worked at Ed McCabe's agency, Scali McCabe Sloves. There I would hear tales of the man who could bring seasoned writers to tears. He was a master of "go for the juglar" advertising. The article in today's Times Automotive Section gives Ed McCabe his due as a matchless idea guy and copywriting legend. He wrote headlines that made you feel dumb if you didn't follow their logic. He made statements that could always be followed by the parenthetical phrase (you shmuck). e.g. "It shouldn't take an act of Congress to make cars safe (you schmuck). " Contrary to the philosophy of H.L. Mencken, Ed's a guy who got rich by never underestimating the intelligence of the American public. I particularly love his comment the end of the article about social media.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/automobiles/real-mad-men-pitched-safety-to-sell-volvos.html
