On a beautiful late spring afternoon, twenty-five years ago, two young men graduated from the same college.

Brand

The Wall Street Journal

Copywriter

Martin Conroy

Year

1975

Country

USA

The opening line of the "Two Young Men" letter, a two-page subscription sales letter for The Wall Street Journal by Martin Conroy. It tells of two graduates who were very much alike: 25 years later, at their reunion, both are happily married with three children, and both went to work for the same Midwestern manufacturing company. One manages a small department there. "The other was its president." The letter never says outright that the president read The Journal; the rest of it lists what a subscription can do for the reader. With minor variations it was mailed continuously from 1975 to 2003. Wikipedia reports an estimated $2 billion in subscription sales.