But this kind of headline is not new. This ad — They Laughed When I Sat Down At The Piano — But When I Started To Play! — was created in 1926 , and went on to become one of the most popular and successful ads in history.
The man behind the original ad is John Caples, and he died in Manhattan in 1990. Much of his obituary in the New York Times focuses on the piano advertisement, which he wrote for the U.S. School of Music. The ad had been an instant success.
. . '' as a lead-in; sites like ViralNova and UpWorthy are no exceptions. A book of the same name was published in 1959, to teach people the history of advertising, decades before viral content would become a leading player in digital journalism and advertising.
Scott DeLong, who was revealed by The Wire this morning as the man responsible for the site, told Business Insider he stares at the poster everyday. DeLong is 31 years old and lives in Ohio. He works on his own, spending each day scouring sites to find stories that could be ViralNova-fied.
Stories aren't ads, but headlines can be; someone is writing them to sell a click. ViralNova. DeLong understands that what he's selling through the site's stories is human emotion and an innate curious ity to find out more, which after 87 years, has proved to be fool-proof.