rogerd - 1:28 pm on Dec 3, 2003 (gmt 0)

While surfing, I ran across jpeterman.com - if you are looking for copy that transcends the product, check them out. You might think a flannel shirt is a fairly prosaic item... You can find them at Wal-Mart for five bucks, and they are the preferred cool-weather apparel for truck drivers and construction workers. If I told you I was going to sell flannel shirts for $148, you'd tell me I was crazy. Or, you'd tell me I'd need a heck of a marketing plan. Well, check out this copy:

On a trip to the Adirondacks, not long ago, in a cabin on the edge of a remote lake, I woke about 1 AM to an unearthly chorus. Soft tremolos, yodels, mournful, drawn-out wails resonating through the night. Haunting. Mysterious. Thrilling. Then silence. When I saw these shirts, I was reminded of that wild music. Somehow, a small family-owned Scottish mill that's been quietly chugging away since 1818 has managed to capture the same brooding, mysterious quality...

The copy goes on, but devotes just one brief line to the product specifications.

If this copy can move even a few $150 flannel shirts, I'd say it qualifies as "copy that sells"... You aren't just buying a warm shirt, you are buying the emotional associations they have created: generations of Scottish tradition and quality, combined with a mystical American outdoor experience most of us will never have. I had to struggle to avoid the "Add to Basket" button... ;)