references/figures/claude-hopkins.md

# Claude Hopkins

## Contribution

A decision card for the Direct Response & Scientific Advertising school. Use the principles, not the personality.

## Principles

- treat advertising as measurable salesmanship.
- test specific propositions and offers.
- prefer reasons and demonstrations over unsupported claims.

## Apply when

- The current decision matches this figure's documented area of contribution.
- The principle can be tied to evidence, a mechanism, or a testable assumption.

## Do not infer

- The figure's name does not settle a disagreement.
- Historical work is not evidence that a current market fact is true.
- Do not mimic personal voice, mannerisms, or biography.

## Connected theories

- `scientific-advertising`

## Counterweights

- Compare with `les-binet` when the principle would otherwise become a universal rule.

## Sources

- `source:hopkins-scientific`