I know I am not alone in learning the term “verisimilitude” from Herschell Gordon Lewis, and the concept is one of the greatest direct mail copywriting tips of all time. Lewis defines it as “the appearance of truth” and advises budding copywriters (as I was when I first heard the term) that telling the whole truth might not be as effective as the appearance of truth when trying to generate a response.
It’s ironic that the “Godfather of Gore,” as....