Copy That Sells

A Claude skill that writes copy which sells. Print ads, OOH, headlines, landing pages, emails, manifestos. Built on D&AD Copy Book craft, Robert Bly direct-response frameworks, and Cannes Lions plus Clio Award print and OOH winners from the last twenty-five years.

If you have ever asked Claude to write an ad and it came back with "unlock the potential," "delve into," or "in today's fast-paced world," this skill is the fix. The Claude default voice is corporate. The copywriting tradition that made Volkswagen, Avis, Economist, Patek Philippe, Nike, and Penny famous is not. This skill loads the second tradition.

Two install paths in one repo. Claude Code users install it as a plugin. Claude Cowork users drop in the bundled .skill file. Same skill, same references, both audiences.

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What's inside

A single skill, copy-that-sells, with one entry point, eight reference files, and a cookbook of worked examples.

Core craft.

• SKILL.md. The workflow. Briefing pass, research pass, idea pass, headline pass, body pass, offer pass, CTA pass, self-edit pass. Two modes: generation and diagnostic.
• references/frameworks.md. Schwartz's five levels of awareness and market sophistication (the selector that picks the headline type). Bly's eight headline categories plus three modern extensions (Listicle, Negative, Outcome-first). The 4 U's. The So-What ladder (features into benefits). AIDA. PAS. BFD. The seven-step direct-response sales letter. Long-copy architecture for sales pages. Voice-of-customer mining. Checklists.
• references/craft.md. The D&AD Copy Book in working form. Find the idea before the words. Make headline and visual one unit. Compress. Vary rhythm. Read aloud. Truth against self. Long-copy seduction. What to do when nothing works.
• references/examples.md. 152 individual campaigns organised into 19 technique and benchmark sections plus tonal masterclasses. Mix of timeless classics, modern always-on brand voice, and recent Cannes/Clio/El Ojo/El Sol winners through 2025. Lookup table you scan when stuck.
• references/self-edit.md. Three-layer final pass. Craft check, anti-AI tells (Era 1 through Era 4 banned word lists in English plus a full Spanish list), truth check. Stops AI tells before they ship.