“Capped” by David Garfinkel
The not-so-secret code of a fast-food restaurant offers a value meal of ideas for great copywriting:
If you live almost anywhere in the U.S. but California (where I live), you know what Waffle House is.
In case you don’t, it’s a fast-food restaurant franchise open 24-hours-a-day. In Atlanta, where I had Sunday morning breakfast at a Waffle House with friends one week ago today, everybody loves Waffle House.
Well, maybe not everybody. But I see more people drinking Coke in Atlanta than anywhere else. And on this Sunday morning, we waited a good 25 minutes, sitting in a line of chairs, to get our table. This is typical, I was told.
Now Waffle House has a special language for when you order, and they use the language they way I have seen other million-dollar copywriters use words for copy… and the way I have used it myself.
At the top of this little rant, you saw a picture of four mushrooms. Now at Waffle House, you can order your hash-browned potatoes with mushrooms, but don’t use that word to describe them — you’ll be corrected.
To order hash browns with anything extra, you have to say “scattered” (since the hash browns are “scattered” among the other ingredients). So if you want to order hash browns with mushrooms, tell your waitress “scattered and capped.”
“Smothered” means with onions; “covered” means with melted cheese.
Rock band Hootie and the Blowfish released a CD in tribute to Waffle House called “Scattered, smothered and covered” in 2000; the chain was founded in 1955 and buying a Waffle House franchise is considered getting a license to print money.
So… copywriting?
Wayull, it just turns out that there are a few dozen words and phrases that work really, really well in sales copy. Words like “new.” “Amazing” “Value” Phrases like “And here’s the best part… ” “Not only that… ” “And what you’ll really like, is… “
Two years ago, I wrote a book called Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich, which revealed these proven phrases in headlines, and showed how to adapt them to your own copy.
A friend of mine, who just happened to have degrees from among the most prestigious business and law schools in the world, wondered (as many people do) if the world would tire of these words and they would lose their effectiveness.
The continuing success of a fixed menu and a fixed vocabulary at the Waffle House is one indication that the basics of direct marketing copy – including the words and phrases themselves – will never change (much, that is).
I cover the surprising reason for this in the free bonus teleseminar you get for signing up to my also free newsletter, The World Copywriting Newsletter.
It’s the fifth of the 11 secrets about copy I reveal in that teleseminar.
I miss the Waffle House, now being home in San Francisco this fine Sunday morning. But we have something even you guys in Atlanta don’t have … the actual diner where George Lucas filmed American Graffiti … Mel’s!
David Garfinkel is one of the best copywriters on the internet and was a speaker at Armand Morin’s Big Seminar Series and Carl Galletti’s Internet Marketing Super Conference. You can learn more about his books and training courses by clicking the links below.
David Garfinkel is founder of the World Copywriting institute and is considered by many people to be the best teacher of copywriting in the world. The stated mission of the World Copywriting Institute is to “eradicate copywriting illiteracy in the world.” Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the world’s best selling series of marketing books, Guerrilla Marketing, says, “David Garfinkel is the best copywriter I know.” Sign up for David’s free World Copywriting Newsletter. and you get a free one-hour downloadable teleseminar on copywriting. Also visit David’s World Copywriting Blog:
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