The ad: “Kurobuta” – a holiday ham sales letter written for food writer David Rosengarten
The copywriter: Gary Bencivenga – often called the greatest living copywriter
The big idea: Kurobuta is to regular pork what Kobe beef is to regular steak… and nobody had made a ham from it yet
The offer: a half or a whole artisanal ham, delivered for the holidays, with a no-risk money-back guarantee in the P.S.
The lesson: never make a promise without a piece of proof standing right next to it.
Few copywriters can write as silky smooth as Gary Bencivenga. He’s often called the greatest living copywriter.
And although he’s retired now, he had a ridiculous 80%+ “hit ratio” during his career.
That means that 8 of 10 promotions he wrote out-converted anything else written by ANYONE – regardless of the niche.
Now, some people might be thinking that this number isn’t a big deal. But in reality, that’s crazy!
(For your reference, even the BEST copywriters today are happy if they have a 50% “hit ratio”)
Rodale Press – the book publisher – put it like this:
Yeah…
So today, I’m going to reveal the secret behind Gary’s genius… by breaking down his famous “Kurobuta Ham” sales letter.
A letter so smooth that people wrote to Gary asking how he did it.
(This is Day 8 of my 100-Day Proven Sales Letter Breakdown Challenge. Prefer video? Here’s the full breakdown.)
Who was the ham for?
You probably know Gary already. (If not, start with my Gary Bencivenga hub – every Bencivenga ad I’ve broken down, in one place.)
The client here is less famous to copywriters… but huge in the food world.
David Rosengarten hosted or co-hosted more than 2,500 shows on the Food Network between 1994 and 2001.
From 2001 to 2007 he wrote and published The Rosengarten Report, which won a James Beard Award for best food and wine newsletter in 2003.
So the letter is written in HIS voice – a respected food expert telling his readers about the best ham he’s ever tasted.
And that matters a lot, as you’ll see.
A headline that’s really a testimonial
The letter opens with the name of the product:
(Want to read the full swipe – marked up with my personal notes and comments? It’s one of the 100 annotated sales letters inside my Million Dollar Copywriting Swipe Library.)
But Kurobuta isn’t really a product. It’s a whole new category of ham most readers have never heard of.
So the name itself creates curiosity: what IS this thing everyone’s obsessed with?
And look at how it’s written. In quotes. Like a testimonial.
It’s a HUGE promise – “the greatest holiday ham I’ve ever tasted” – but it comes from an expert, so it reads like proof.
Then the scarcity lands right away – a little warning about hams selling out.
And the version I broke down came with a hard deadline: Tuesday, December 11, 2007.
The holidays give the whole promotion a natural reason to act now. Nobody wants the boring ham at the family dinner.
How Gary Bencivenga uses evocative visual words
Well, I got carried away reading the copy. In fact, I was compelled to imagine the rich taste and flavor of Kurobuta Ham.
Gary uses visual words to tap into the imagination of the readers.
And that is because the descriptive nature of the copy appeals to the senses and leaves a mark!
Visual words from the letter
“Exotic breed of Japanese hog”
Exotic + Japanese = rare and special before you even taste it.
“The texture was velvety, the flavor sublime and the meat melts in the mouth”
You can almost feel it.
“Unbelievably succulent”
OMG, how can I miss that exquisite ham?
It’s almost like NLP. You don’t just read about the ham.
You see it, smell it – and you start salivating.
Then the letter itself opens with:
Promise, proof, promise, proof
Gary was famous for proof. He includes 400 testimonials from raving fans on the right side of the ad, making it REALLY difficult to beat.
Real customers, real dinners, real memories… and each one quietly answers an objection.
And in the body copy, every big promise gets a piece of proof right next to it.
This paragraph is my favorite. I think it’s a masterpiece:
A famous chef.
A famous restaurant.
A famous magazine.
And one of the best analogies I’ve ever seen in a food ad.
By referencing the exclusivity and high perceived value of Kobe beef…
One of the most expensive steaks in the world…
Gary raises the perceived value of Kurobuta ham in the minds of readers.
The reader knows Kobe beef. They probably can’t afford it.
And now they get something just as special… as a ham.
Want to raise the perceived value of your product? Compare it to something your reader already knows is expensive.
The emotional discovery story of Kurobuta ham
Then Gary sets up the problem.
That’s the unique mechanism of the problem: it’s not your fault your ham is dry and bland.
The whole industry changed the pig.
Then comes the hero’s journey. The seller set out to find the perfect ham.
He tasted everything. Months of research. And every ham fell short somewhere.
Then the light bulb moment:
A market opportunity nobody had touched.
And Gary even gets playful with it – “the ham of hams”… the greatest ham story ever told.
Over the top? Sure. But he’s earned it with all that proof, so it just makes you smile.
What made Kurobuta ham so special?
It was tailored by a ham specialist and the short, round muscle fiber led to high moisture retention, making the ham “outrageously juicy and flavorful.”
Out of 20 quality tests on 9 different breeds, Kurobuta won with the highest honors as the juiciest, most tender, and flavorful.
Gary then covers the details of the production process, including the blend of spice and brown sugar that gives it a rich, buttery taste.
Gary was a huge proponent of using “reason why” elements in his copy and with good… reason!
(Sorry.)
Using these elements lends an aura of credibility to your whole persuasive argument. This is crucial for countering objections and getting the sale.
And then he drops one of the most believable testimonials I’ve ever read:
You can’t argue with that.
What Gary is really selling
Ultimately, the thing that Gary’s selling here isn’t really the “ham” itself…
It’s the feeling of becoming a highly-respected host who amazes everyone during a family get-together.
The ham is just a unique mechanism. The letter says it out loud near the end: this ham leaves your guests in awe.
THAT’S the core desire. Not pork. Being the hero of the holiday dinner.
Which ham, not whether
Then Gary handles the practical stuff. The ham comes in two sizes – a half ham or a whole ham.
That’s a “which” question, not a “whether” question. You’re no longer deciding IF you’ll buy… just which one.
And he goes after the biggest objection to the big one: “What do we do with all the leftovers?”
He throws in his own recipes.
Ham, fennel and potato gratin.
Southern-style ham biscuits.
Brie and smoked ham on sourdough…
Sorry. Where was I? Right. The leftovers problem just became a bonus.
Urgency with a reason
At this point, the reader is sold on the ham. Now they need a nudge off the fence.
And the holidays make it easy. The deadline isn’t fake – it’s Christmas.
And the no-risk money-back guarantee sits in the P.S.
The last words of the letter? Benefits again.
Tender.
Juicy.
Because the end is what people remember.
Would the Kurobuta letter still work today?
It would still beat most food brands’ copy by a mile. But I’d change two things.
1 – The ham is described as raised on traditional corn and soybeans. Today’s foodie wants grass-fed, pasture-raised, “this pig had a better life than me”. The letter mentions pasture later… but I’d put the animal’s story front and center.
2 – The offer. Today I’d test a stronger offer structure – anchor the price, add bonuses, layer in more proof, and bring the guarantee up from the P.S. People are even more skeptical now.
The rest? Leave it alone.
It doesn’t feel like a deliberately powerful piece of copy… and that’s exactly why it’s so powerful.
Laid back.
Credible.
No fluff.
Exactly as much as needs to be said, the way it needs to be said.
That’s the hardest type of copy to write.
5 lessons to steal from Gary Bencivenga
1 – Pair every promise with proof. A chef, a magazine, a skeptic’s testimonial. Promise, proof, promise, proof – all the way down.
2 – Borrow an analogy they already value. “The Kobe beef of pork” does in nine words what a page of description can’t.
3 – Give the problem a mechanism. “The other white meat” explains WHY every other ham disappoints – so yours doesn’t have to fight the competition head-on.
4 – Sell the moment, not the product. Nobody wants ham. They want their family raving about dinner.
5 – Kill the objection with a bonus. “What about the leftovers?” became a recipe collection.
That’s Day 8.
See all the proven sales letter breakdowns →
More Gary Bencivenga ads: all of them on the Bencivenga hub · his olive oil letter · “Shoestring Business” · the Health Confidential offer
More like this: Bencivenga’s “64 Toughest Interview Questions” · Gary Bencivenga’s agency ad
And if you want the “secret recipe” behind letters like this one – the persuasion pattern I kept seeing over and over during these 100 days – grab it here:
Free cheat sheet
Steal the “Secret Recipe” Behind the Most Profitable Sales Letters of All Time
The 7-part structure I kept finding in proven sales letters – plus a 26-point checklist that catches the holes in your copy before it goes live.
Send Me the Secret Recipe →-Csaba
P.S. – A lot of people have been asking about the sales letter swipes I’ve used for this 100-day challenge…
They’d love to get access not just to the swipes themselves…
…But to my detailed notes, annotations and comments on them as well.
So I put them all together in my Million Dollar Copywriting Swipe Library – 100 of the best sales letters of all time, annotated and marked up. Plus a 2,000+ page swipe vault of emails, sales pages and Facebook ads.
It’s less than a buck per annotated sales letter… and some of these bad boys are 50+ pages long!
(PRO TIP: you can even feed them into your AI tools to make them that much smarter.)
