Don Hauptman was an award-winning independent direct-response copywriter and creative consultant for more than 30 years.
He may be best known for his headline “Speak Spanish [French, German, etc.] Like a Diplomat!” This familiar series of ads sold spectacular numbers of recorded foreign language lessons for Audio-Forum, generating revenues that total in the tens of millions of dollars. In the process, the ad achieved the status of an industry classic.
Don’s work is mentioned in three major college advertising textbooks, and examples of his promotions are cited in the books Million Dollar Mailings (1992) and World's Greatest Direct Mail Sales Letters (1996). In a column in Advertising Age, his name was included in a short list of direct-marketing “superstars.”
He has a parallel career as a writer on language and wordplay. His celebration of spoonerisms, Cruel and Unusual Puns (Dell, 1991), received rave reviews and quickly went into a second printing. His second book was Acronymania (Dell, 1993).
Recently, Don retired from full-time copywriting in order to focus on other interests, including his passion for “recreational linguistics.” He is at work on a new book in that genre. He is a regular contributor to the magazine Word Ways and writes “The Language Perfectionist,” a weekly column on grammar and usage, for Early to Rise.
Don is author of The Versatile Freelancer,an e-book from American Writers and Artists, Inc. (AWAI) that shows copywriters – and almost anyone – how to diversify their careers into consulting, training, critiquing, and speaking.
Read Don Hauptman's previous newsletter articles below:
It’s time once again for a roundup of ambiguities in the media. That is, badly written sentences that puzzle, confuse, or mislead readers because they lack clarity and can be interpreted in more than one way. Check your writing to ensure that you don’t commit this common error. I found the following examples in my [...]
By Don Hauptman | Fri, Apr 15, 2011
Quick! Is anything wrong with the following three sentences? “Costa Rica offered a chance to see a plethora of wildlife and members of the plant family.” “Sony Computer Entertainment America has officially announced a plethora of new titles entering the Greatest Hits category….” Headline: “Recreation [Department] Offers a Plethora of Youth Programs to Start 2011….” Many people assume that [...]
By Don Hauptman | Fri, Apr 8, 2011
The expression of course looks innocent, but it can create problems. Writers and speakers casually insert the phrase to indicate that something is obvious or self-evident. In most cases, it’s perfectly acceptable. But in others, it can sound insulting or patronizing. The Penguin Dictionary of American English Usage and Style, by Paul W. Lovinger, has a [...]
By Don Hauptman | Fri, Apr 1, 2011
A few months ago, I wrote a serious column about acronyms. Now April Fools’ Day provides an appropriate occasion to explore the humorous possibilities of acronyms and initialisms. You say you didn’t know that abbreviations can be funny? Sure you do! This is a phenomenon that everyone has encountered or practiced. We acronymically “redefine” familiar names [...]
By Don Hauptman | Fri, Mar 25, 2011
Consider the following three sentences, all found via online search: “Unbeknownst to me, they had been planning my birthday all weekend.” “Unbeknownst to most Americans, oil fields dot northern Afghanistan near its border with Turkmenistan.” “You blamed us, when all of it was unbeknownst to us, and completely unintentional.” The word unbeknownst has an archaic or literary ring, but [...]
By Don Hauptman | Fri, Mar 18, 2011
It’s time once again to set the record straight on pairs of words that are commonly confused. Here are examples from print and online sources: “The number had been cut before the premier of the film.” A gala event is a premiere. The adjective meaning first is premier. “Mr. [...]
By Don Hauptman | Fri, Mar 11, 2011
I’ve observed a strange phenomenon in my reading lately: words that are improperly divided in two. I hope it’s not a trend. The following examples are taken from major newspapers and online searches: “While Mr. Assange is basking in his new found fame, there is no reason to believe he was directly responsible for downloading the [...]
By Don Hauptman | Fri, Mar 4, 2011
As readers of this column know, I have a habit of searching for errors and anomalies in the media, adding my own puckish retorts, and preserving the results for posterity. Below is a fresh collection of recent bloopers and mischievous rejoinders. This set originally appeared in Word Ways, “The Journal of Recreational Linguistics,” a venerable print [...]
By Don Hauptman | Fri, Feb 18, 2011
In an eerie coincidence, two acquaintances almost simultaneously sent me e-mail messages that concerned the proper use of whether. One suggested that my use of whether should have been if. The other wondered if the phrase whether or not contains two unnecessary words. Let’s consider these issues in turn. First, whether vs. if. Garner’s Modern American Usage, [...]
By Don Hauptman | Fri, Feb 11, 2011
While listening to National Public Radio, I heard a plug for the film The King’s Speech. The announcer referred to George VI’s “impromptu ascension to the throne.” If you’ve seen this excellent movie, you know that George’s becoming king could be described in many ways, but impromptu — spontaneous, unplanned — is not among them. Quite [...]
By Don Hauptman | Fri, Apr 22, 2011
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