"Imagine Harry and Me advertising our PEARS in Fortune!"

This award-winning classic ad was the catalyst to massive growth for Harry & David, a gourmet food gifting business that built it's empire via mail-order....View More In 1934, Harry traveled to New York City with a huge supply of pears from his & his brother's pear orchard in Oregon. Harry thought it would be a good idea to reach out to top executives & pitch the pears as an exquisite corporate gift so he sent out letters with a set of complimentary pears. It worked tremendously well and by 1936, they were ready to start advertising nationally. They thought Fortune magazine would be the best place to reach their target customers & ended up using a comment from David, "Imagine Harry & Me advertising our Pears In Fortune!" as the headline. The ad is a great example of deliciously building up exclusivity & scarcity around a product. They disarm you first by claiming that they know nothing about advertising & are just a bunch of farm boys. Then, they play up how this is the first time they're offering their pears to the general public, citing how previous customers included royals. Then, they pile on social proof by discussing everyone who loved their pears & finally nail home the scarcity & urgency tactics again by explaining that there is a limited amount. After reading it, you WILL want the pears. I know I did.