RIP JOE SUGARMAN,

[Dien Rice]

I thought this was a great article about the late Joe Sugarman...

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With a knack for narrative, Joseph Sugarman used words to move products

Known for marketing BluBlocker Sunglasses and for sharing his expertise, Mr. Sugarman died March 18 at age 83.

Joseph Sugarman had a thing for stories. He figured out how to tell stories to pique people’s curiosity and get them to buy something.

He sold a game based on the Watergate political scandal. With the Cold War on people’s minds in 1983, he marketed a rudimentary computer game he called the Hungarian Conspiracy, using reverse psychology in the sales pitch. In a long tongue-in-cheek entry he published in his mail-order catalog, Mr. Sugarman said the addictive game was part of a Communist plot to take over the U.S. and that people should send in $29 for it, just so they could warn others about its harm. In his book, The AdWeek Copywriting Handbook, he called the effort only moderately successful but one of his favorite creations.

But wait, there’s more. In 1986, he hit upon the crowning product of his career. Acquiring a patent from a bankrupt company that had done business with NASA, he sold BluBlocker Sunglasses to a receptive public. They block the sun’s blue light to reduce glare. That means you won’t squint so much — so he could even say the sunglasses fight wrinkles. They are still sold.

Continue reading at the Chicago Sun-Times, here...