Home > Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns > U.S. School of Music

• THEY LAUGHED WHEN I SAT DOWN AT THE PIANO Campaign
• They Laughed When I Tried to Write Advertising Copy
• Further Reading

1031 Brunswick Bldg.
New York
New York
USA

THEY LAUGHED WHEN I SAT DOWN AT THE PIANO Campaign

Overview

"Unquestionably the most beloved of all the mail-order ads," wrote Frank Rowsome, Jr., "was the memorable 'They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano but When I Started to Play!'" Rowsome clearly admired the ad, for he named his 1959 book on the history of advertising They Laughed When I Sat Down. The ad campaign for the U.S. School of Music was, as Herschell Gordon wrote in 1997, a "touchstone"; Gordon was not surprised that "60 or 70 years...