Nobody spent more time with Gary Halbert than I have.
He also took time to train me how to think like him which has been a blessing and a curse.
Other family members, his friends and employees used to ask me to guess what my pop was going to say and do when he heard some particular piece of news and I was always right, so it’s natural to ask me what Gary Halbert would say about AI.
Even John Carlton called me once just to pose this exact question and here is the answer which should also give you some valuable information during this time when AI is disrupting the copywriting industry.
The first thing to know is nobody should have taken Gary Halbert’s initial opinion on tech seriously. I mean that. It was always a huge mistake.
He thought the Internet was going to be like a giant world wide filing system.
Kevin and I had to convince him of the awesome power and effect the World Wide Web was going to have on businesses but while you should ignore his initial thoughts you should also pay close attention to what I think his final thoughts would be.
Gary Halbert’s First Thoughts
My dad’s first thought would be that AI is like a very fast typist and that would be a completely inadequate assessment.
AI can do a lot more than just type something out and once you showed it to Gary, it would alter his opinion… which is a feather in his cap because he was capable of changing his mind. I have seen him alter his opinion based on new information many times which is a sign of intelligence.
Gary Halbert’s Second Thoughts
His second thought would be that AI is like a fast and efficient yet dumb personal assistant which he would label as very dangerous.
This assistant could type faster than even his trusty Girl Friday Theresa, but unlike Theresa, AI would need to be fact checked or you could end up looking foolish or in serious legal trouble should you just post whatever content it spits out.
My dad always taught me the folks you should be most scared of are crazy or stupid people and AI is very dumb.
If you let AI make decisions you are taking a risk it will cause a disaster.
The great internet marketing genius Frank Kern recently let AI write a post about my father. Too many people don’t know that in the world of copy, all roads lead to Gary Halbert, so I always appreciate when anyone spreads the good word about Gary Halbert but this post was FUBAR which for you younglings stands Fu*%ed Up Beyond All Recognition.
The post talked about three great ads my dad wrote, and I wish I could say there was one little problem with that particular post but there were lots of big problems with that piece of content.
The first ad mentioned was Gary Halbert’s second most famous Tova Borgnine Ad only the ad pictured had some other woman in it. I think it was June Lockhart which doesn’t matter because it wasn’t Tova.
The second ad was The Lazy Man’s Way To Riches which was a great ad but my father did NOT write that ad. Joe Karbo wrote this masterpiece and on top of that, the picture in the content melded two completely different ads into one.
Imagine how embarrassing it would be if you were chatting with another copywriter and mentioned how much you love the Lazy Man’s Way To Riches ad by Gary Halbert only to see the person you said that to chuckle and correct you.
Once someone finds out what you taught them was wrong, they never completely trust you again.
The third picture was supposed to be Gary Halbert’s Heraldry Letter except the picture was of an ad and NOT the letter.
Not only did AI screw up all the ads, the AI software used a picture of my dad I own the rights to.
This is where AI can cost you thousands of dollars.
Now I’m not going to slam a person who is NOT trying to make money off my dad’s legacy and is just praising him, but imagine if that picture was owned by Getty Images who is famous for sending demand for payment letters every time someone “borrows” one of their images off the net.
This same software also created an image of Chris Hadad and Alex Cattoni and ran them in actual ads.
Nobody can say Chris has an average look. (yes Chris, you are very handsome but in a unique way) so what the software did when instructed to write an ad about a male copywriter is it searched for an identity and copied Chris’ which is super illegal.
Using someone’s likeness without their permission to sell something can cost you lots of money. And considering AI doesn’t tell you where it gets its inspiration from… ensuring an AI generated image is not too similar to a real person’s likeness is an incredible challenge.
If the copyright of something stolen by AI is perfected (filed with the government) the judgement is an automatic $150,000 plus attorney fees.
If the claimant is nice and only sends you to the small claims version of this court the fee is $750-$30,000 per violation.
Now let’s suppose everyone loves you like everyone loves Frank and nobody wants to make a stink. This still leaves the problem of damage to your reputation.
I know some people think there is no such thing as bad press but I feel like the comments on that particular post didn’t help the sales of the AI software it was trying to show off.
Let’s go even further into the danger zone and imagine the AI software runs ads with bogus claims which catches the attention of the SEC or another alphabet agency.
This can get someone into very serious legal trouble.
By the way, “the software made all these mistakes” won’t be a viable legal defense just like a robot that kills someone won’t absolve the person who built it.
If AI can make such dangerous mistakes in the hands of someone as smart as Frank, imagine what it can do left unchecked with a newbie marketer.
This nonsense is why almost all the companies who fired a team of copywriters to be replaced with AI ended up hiring human copywriters again and the only people I have seen who claim otherwise are selling AI related courses or software.
Gary’s Final Thoughts
My dad’s most current thoughts would be that copywriters who rely on templates and copying his ads almost verbatim, could kiss their lucrative careers goodbye, but the top writers will always be able to command even higher fees.
Now let’s pretend you put in some quality control and you don’t have to worry about your marketing Terminator getting your ass thrown in jail.
So with the danger out of the way we are left with a dumb but tireless assistant you never want to make its own decisions and copywriting is nothing but a giant string of decisions.
This won’t be the most vital thought which I’ll mention in a moment, but it’s still important.
Every talking point is a decision. Every word is a choice.
Should I use the word “get”, “obtain”, or “have”? Great copywriters make these decisions fast because if they didn’t, they would become paralyzed.
Oh should I have just used the word “stalled” instead of “paralyzed”? No paralyzed is more emotionally charged but AI can’t make that distinction between which word is emotionally charged and which word isn’t, at least not yet.
AI just restates what a bunch of other people are already saying.
Also, you must hide any hint that AI was used at all, because USC just did a study and any association with AI dropped human engagement and interest significantly.
Nobody wants to read a book written by AI, so if you do write anything using software, you had better do a great job editing.
Now my father never modeled an ad after someone else’s. He would break other ads down and get the psychology lessons from the works of others but each Gary Halbert promotion reads like someone saying something brand spanking new, which leads me to the most important point Gary Halbert would make.
My dad did not teach his proteges how to write. He taught us how to think and how to come up with unique hooks, selling arguments and how to give people the kind of aha moments which drive sales.
All top copywriters are also creative direct marketing experts who do a lot more than just describe what we sell in an exciting way.
For example, we help find, develop, or refine your competitive advantage which is called a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and uniqueness is another thing AI doesn’t do well.
Once all the stores claim to have the lowest prices in town or offer the same buy two get one free discount, the store needs to do something else to stand out and if the new big idea works out all the other stores will soon copy whatever is the latest working promotion.
This means the savvy marketers will lead the pack, the early adopters will copy them first and AI along with the third string marketers will be fighting over what’s left as the Halbert trained marketers think up new hooks or unique mechanisms.
This is why the people writing the promotions which are basically copying the current best promotion in the niche will lose their jobs to AI.
Now that I am done bashing AI, let me point out some of its usefulness.
There are lots of things a smart marketer can do with a tireless but dumb assistant.
You can ask it to come up with 100 logos and then take the parts you like from each and have it incorporate those elements into a design you like, but here is what I really do like about AI.
AI can handle lots of tasks which have nothing to do with human psychology but to make it work you must do at least one of two things.
Marketing is a numbers game.
Even if you have some very unexciting and basic level of copy, if you get your sales message to the people who just found out they have a problem and need a solution before other sellers, you can do very well with even sloppy copy.
AI can help do that.
Meta used to try and optimize for just one best performing adset so it was trying to find the perfect ad for all potential buyers but now it tries to find the perfect ad for different types of people.
The way this used to work was you decided who the best buyers are and then you tweaked that copy until you had the perfect ad for that avatar.
Once the ad was all dialed in you then created a separate campaign targeting a separate avatar.
For example let’s say you had a biz op offer. You would run an ad targeting men using language highlighting the status and power your offer would give them over others.
When your hot promo was all dialed in you would then run another promo for the same offer except to women and in this copy you would use language more focused on security and financial independence.
Yes, I know men and women want all of those benefits but you should focus your copy on the most powerful emotion the ideal prospect already feels.
Once you have a bunch of different taglines/headlines which may be attractive to different avatars with. AI can line up these different types of ads to match different types of buyers faster than any human can.
This way you can sell to people with different market levels of awareness and to different avatars a lot faster but there is still one problem.
To make the promotion sing you are still going to need someone great who understands how to be unique and who also has a great level of understanding of how prospects are thinking right now, and that can change very fast.
Without getting into too much debate, there is no American who would argue that they feel the same way about the future and the current state of affairs as they did just a few short years ago.
Some hate the directional change and some love it, but everybody feels like it has changed.
Hell, just the recent up and down in gas prices have affected buying habits severely, and no matter what you think about that, the “Gary Halbert trained marketer” has to be able to adapt to changing emotions faster than AI can.
With all that said, if you want to secure your future, do five things.
- Become a student of human nature.
- Watch and learn about AI, especially with media buying.
- Develop a habit of tapping into creativity which can be yours or others
- Train yourself to adapt faster and faster
- Join a group of people who also cherish these attributes and support you
That final point is critical to rapid and continuing success.
Relationships have always been and will always be super powerful.
Imagine how much faster you would reach your goals if someone like Gary Halbert took you by the hand and showed you the ropes.
Times are changing so fast that by the time you learn the game, the game has changed so hang out with the game changers.
Even if your connections just help you keep up to date on the current best practices they can save your business bacon, but they always do so much more,
People bring you opportunities, insights and unique ideas. The world is changing so fast, no one person can keep up with all of it.
Where do you find the right group?
I’m glad you asked.
Join Halbertizing. I truly believe nobody cares more about helping you stay ahead in business more than we do. If we want to be a marketing dynasty, we have to care, but in reality we just do care and always have. Ask any member.
To check it out visit BondHalbert.co/Halbertizing
Here is to a rapidly changing yet bright future.
Bond
PS Once Gary Halbert had a handle on the Internet he immediately cashed in on it and made his website a copywriting powerhouse. That is the way of Gary Halbert.
PPS My dad would add getting in shape to that list above, so I’m now headed out to do some roadwork.
Link to discover what’s in the best marketing training program on Earth is in the comments.