The ad: “Vision Breakthrough” – the print ad that sold BluBlocker sunglasses
The copywriter: Joe Sugarman – mail-order legend and founder of JS&A
The big idea: a skeptic puts on a pair of sunglasses… and can’t believe what he sees
The offer: three models, a money-back guarantee, and a dare to compare them with your old pair
The lesson: every line has one job – get the next line read. That’s the slippery slope.
If you’ve read my last post, where I broke down Gary Halbert’s famous “How to Collect From Social Security at Any Age” ad…
You’re already ahead of 80% of people out there, congratulations!
(if not, here’s the link to that post)
For the 2nd part of my “Proven Sales Letter Breakdown” challenge…
I’d like to show you another famous ad, written by none other than Joe Sugarman. A true titan of the direct response marketing industry.
In this breakdown, you’ll discover how Joe took a pair of simple sunglasses (with a cool feature)…
And turned it into a multi-million dollar brand that’s STILL alive & well today… with a single sales letter.
This is super powerful stuff that only the best copywriters in the world can pull off.
(This is Day 2 of my 100-Day Proven Sales Letter Breakdown Challenge. Prefer video? Here’s the full breakdown.)
Who was Joe Sugarman?
Joe Sugarman (1938–2022) was one of the great mail-order copywriters. And an entrepreneur on top of that.
In 1971 he founded JS&A – a mail-order company that sold gadgets straight off the page with print ads.
In 1986 he launched BluBlocker sunglasses. BluBlocker’s own history page credits him as the first to popularize 1-800 infomercial-style ads.
He also wrote two of the best copywriting books ever: Advertising Secrets of the Written Word and Triggers.
When I recorded this video, I said he was retired and still with us. Sadly, he passed away in March 2022, at 83.
(You’ll often read that BluBlocker sold 20 million pairs or more. I couldn’t find a solid public source for that exact number… so let’s just call it a LOT of sunglasses.)
The slippery slope
This is Joe’s most famous idea.
The job of the headline? Get you to read the subhead.
The job of the subhead? Get you to read the first sentence.
And the first sentence gets you to the second one, and so on… all the way down to the order form.
Every line has ONE job: get the next line read.
This ad is the perfect example. It doesn’t try hard. It isn’t aggressive.
It just… flows.
(It’s one of the best ads to copy out by hand, by the way. You’ll FEEL how effortless it is.)
How Joe Sugarman hooks the reader
The headline is two words:
(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.)
People want advancements that can change their lives – or the lives of the people they love.
But Joe doesn’t stop there. He follows up with a testimonial-style subhead:
Then the very first sentence:
Slippery slope in action.
The skeptic and his friend Len
Here’s the clever part. Joe doesn’t sell you the glasses.
He tells you about the time somebody sold HIM the glasses.
His friend Len “has an eye for good products”. One day Len calls, all excited about a pair of sunglasses.
“When you first look through a pair, you won’t believe it.”
A big promise. And big promises make people skeptical.
So Joe – the skeptic – asks the question YOU’RE thinking: what could be so incredible?
Len’s answer: objects appear sharper and more defined, and everything takes on an enhanced 3-D effect.
Then the first subhead:
It flips the script. You don’t feel like anything is being pushed on you.
You get pulled INTO the ad, wondering why you’ve never heard of this thing before.
Joe Sugarman’s masterful use of creative visualization techniques
Once Joe puts on the glasses, he gets into a magical world where objects appear sharper, and everything takes a 3-D effect.
He claims to be so mesmerized by the product that he kept taking the glasses off and on to see if it was real.
Wouldn’t you want to try such a product? See how Joe already builds desire without the audience noticing it!
The best copy gets you to envision life with the product in it.
By sharing his own experience, he makes the reader directly visualize what they can experience by using the product.
It’s a demonstration.
Think about how powerful infomercials were with their live demos. Same thing, in print.
You join Joe on his journey of discovery. And we’re all wired to fall for those.
It’s also show, don’t tell.
Joe doesn’t describe the glasses like a textbook. He paints the picture.
Why? Simple. We think in pictures. (I actually wrote my psychology thesis on part of this stuff – the mental representations we constantly build in our heads.)
That’s why we always look for reviews before buying.
By positioning himself as a “customer” first, Joe Sugarman brilliantly uses word-of-mouth advertising… showcasing that this is a total upgrade.
How effective is word-of-mouth advertising?
Let’s look at some statistics:
1 – According to Semrush, 90% of people are much more likely to trust a recommended brand – even when the recommendation comes from a stranger.
2 – 88% of people had the highest level of trust in a brand when a friend or family member recommended it.
Going back to the ad now…
The entire lead (and the first part of the sales letter in general) does a great job of building tons of curiosity.
You WANT to find out what happens next and WHY… even though the story isn’t really that gripping.
Price anchors… before you see a price
Notice this. The price only shows up at the very end.
But Joe starts anchoring it right away.
First: his cherished $100 sunglasses don’t even compare.
Later: these are better than $200 pairs you can buy from France or Italy.
So by the time you see the real price… it already feels small.
A name that sells itself
Then he gives them a name.
BluBlockers.
Easy to remember. Easy to tell a friend about.
And the benefit is built RIGHT into the name – they block blue light.
If your product name can explain the benefit on its own, you’ve saved yourself a whole paragraph of copy.
How Joe Sugarman turns “boring” copy around with interesting analogies
As a keen customer, Joe wants to find out what makes the glasses different.
So he explains the mechanism. They block dangerous UV rays and blue light from the sun… hence “BluBlockers”.
And he uses everyday analogies:
“Blue Monday.” “I have the blues.”
Blue = the negative stuff. And these glasses block it.
Reason-why copy
This next part is pure reason-why copy. Something Gary Bencivenga was HUGE on.
Reason one, then reason two – and each one hits harder than the last:
Then he gets into the science. Very tactfully.
Regular sunglasses, he says, can actually focus harmful UV rays onto the retina.
That’s a smart move. Because at this point, some readers are thinking:
“OK, fine… but I already have sunglasses.”
Joe answers that objection before they can raise it.
Science-based persuasion works… because people crave the details – without realizing they’re being sold to.
The unique selling proposition in the Vision Breakthrough ad
Joe establishes dominance of BluBlockers over other brands very strategically. Then he answers the next objection head-on:
Why is a pair of BluBlockers a total upgrade? Better than a $200 pair from France or Italy, he says. Because of:
1 – Technology. CR-39 lenses. “Over 85% of all doctors’ prescriptions are filled with CR-39 lenses,” says the ad. Not “8 out of 10″… 85%. The specific number makes it believable.
2 – Comfort. A completely flexible frame that contours to your face.
3 – Choice. Different models for different needs.
This is how you do a slippery slope right.
You keep people’s attention with a story-based demonstration that dissolves disbelief… and you position the product as a unique new opportunity – through a powerful unique mechanism.
The close: a dare, a guarantee and three choices
Then Joe invites you into the discovery yourself.
Take your old sunglasses.
Put on BluBlockers.
Compare.
How could you NOT try that?
There’s a 30-day money-back guarantee. Nothing to lose.
Then more future pacing – even your night vision improves, objects appear sharper. Then the last subhead, “dramatic difference”, which restates the promise.
And by now, there’s enough proof to carry it.
Then a big piece of social proof that qualifies a whole crowd at once:
Pilots. Golfers. Hunters. Athletes. Anyone who spends time in the sun, drives a car, or just wants to protect their vision.
Promise, proof, promise, proof. All the way down.
Three options on the order form
And the order form? Three options:
A plastic version – the technology, basic looks.
A clip-on – convenient.
An aluminum deluxe – the expensive, hip one.
Most people pick the middle. But there’s always a slice of buyers who want the best one.
Give them the option. And once they’re happy, maybe they’ll buy a few more pairs for the family.
New BluBlocker owner, probably.
Would the BluBlocker ad still work today?
Mostly, yes. Stories, demonstrations and reason-why copy never go out of style.
What I’d change? Today’s readers have heard every “you won’t believe your eyes” claim a thousand times.
So I’d bring in even MORE proof. Real customer stories. Before-and-after views through the lens. Maybe a video demo.
The ad already does this in print. Online, you can SHOW it.
The flow, the skeptic’s story, the name, the reasons why, the three options? I wouldn’t touch them.
5 lessons to steal from Joe Sugarman
1 – Every line sells the next line. Headline → subhead → first sentence → and so on, down the slope.
2 – Let a skeptic tell the story. The reader’s doubts become the hero’s doubts… and then they’re gone.
3 – Give the product a name that explains itself. BluBlockers block blue light. Done.
4 – Give reasons why. One reason, then a better one, then kill the “but I already have sunglasses” objection.
5 – Offer choices, not a yes/no. Three models. Which one… not whether.
That’s Day 2.
See all the proven sales letter breakdowns →
More ads that make an “ordinary” product irresistible: Frank Schultz’s “Fluke of Nature” grapefruit ad · Gary Bencivenga’s Kurobuta ham letter · Bencivenga’s olive oil letter
And if you want the “secret recipe” behind ads 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.)
