IBM ‘Which is the cat? Which is the copycat?”’ 
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Agency:DDB
Copywriter:Tom Yobage
Year: 1970s
Brand: IBM (USA)

File Under ︎ Copywriting with personality

ONE thing this ad does well (AKA Copywriting Tip):

Show, don’t tell— but on steroids

In the 1970s, IBM faced a small psychological problem disguised as a technological one.

They were entering the $1.5-billion-a-year copier market with a machine that looked, to most eyes, suspiciously like Xerox’s.

The problem? Xerox wasn’t just the leader— Xerox was the category.

But IBM’s ad agency did something better.

They printed an ad with four black-and-white kitten photos—one real, three copies—and asked: “Which is the cat? Which is the copycat?”

Here’s the behavioral magic: the ad didn’t argue.

It made readers test themselves.

⇝ “Which is the cat? Which is the copycat?”.

⇝ “The IBM series III copier makes copies that are hard to tell from the original. And nobody does it easier.”