I’ve talked extensively about cutting copy in this hyper-marketing, media-attention-deficit-disorder kind of world. 
I received this email from J. Crew for a Panama Hat and thought I’d try to cut it down and not lose the selling idea. I like the clean layout, but these ads look like print ads, not emails. There are more than 100 words. Let’s see what we can do:
This Week’s Discovery
The Panama hat
Wear sexy, south-of-the-equator style during sultry summer nights.
- Teddy Roosevelt made this hat famous
- Stylishly worn by the likes of Lauren Hutton and Kate Moss
- Black-banded classic
- Woven by hand in Ecuador
- Made of toquilla palm fronds, no two alike
- Dermatologists thrilled for sun-shielding abilities
It may have lost a little of the panache, some of the design, but we’ve gained readers by cutting more than 50 words.
Hats may be back, but not long copy.
