I Could Never Sell

This could be a tough sell. Whatever you’re selling, winners are easier to sell. Winners expect they can make your proposal a winner no matter what, if it comes to that. They probably can. They have a history of that.

When I was eight my father brought home a movie.  My sister and I flattened ourselves against the nearest wall as he came through the house carrying a stack of metals cans, four or five cans shaped like dinner plates but larger, a feast for giants.  Then he wrestled a heavy projector through the halls.  [...]

That was one of Oglivy’s great innovations in advertising, the editorial ad, with lots of words and facts, like a report.

An easy one first. Freakonomics goes round and round with the question When Are High Wine Prices Justified? Do wine prices rise because of production costs?  Because the cost of making the wine rises?  In pricing them (to sell or to buy) do we start with their cost of production and mark them up? I [...]