It's the offer, stupid!(Famous Last Words)(Column)

Forget advertising that gives you the warm fuzzies and focus on getting response

When you reach a certain age, the first thing you turn to in the morning newspaper is the obituaries. I started when I reached nine.

Here's one, as reported by Robert McG. Thomas, Jr. in The New York Times, Jan. 17, 1998:

Ted Hustead Is Dead at 96; Built the Legendary Wall Drug

Anybody who watched Ted Hustead roll into Wall, S.D., on a cattle truck in December 1931, his wife and 4-year-old son at his side, the family's entire stock of meager possessions piled in the back, would have needed quite a crystal ball to predict that by the time Mr. Hustead died two-thirds of a century later, the governor of South Dakota would be moved to open his annual state-of-the-state address with a tribute to the man who became a beloved South Dakota legend by turning a small-town pharmacy named Wall Drug into the world's most popular drug store.