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- 24-MAR-2026 | David Abbott’s “Via Veneto” Ad for Sainsbury’s
24-MAR-2026 | David Abbott’s “Via Veneto” Ad for Sainsbury’s
Dan Bogachek
March 24, 2026
The Vault from Copywork365
The swipe file is dead.
Literally, and maybe figuratively as well.
When I first started working on this project, I gave it the working title, Toolbox. The simple tagline was: the swipe file on roids.
But the more I worked on it, the more it became clear that this wasn’t just a box of tools. Calling it a swipe file wasn’t accurate, either. Roided up, or otherwise.
Because at its core, the swipe file is merely a collection of pictures or text. A pile, in other words.
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And no matter how much stuff you hoard into a swipe file, its contents are inert.
This, on the other hand, grows deeper over time. Its contents are living.
So, henceforth, this will be known as…
New illustration — credit Pranav Venkitaraman.
Big thank you to Pranav!
The Vault is an atomic copywriting database. As far as I know it’s the first of its kind, so that’s what I’m calling it.
It’s a database of world-class excerpts just like the ones we cover right here on the daily. Spanning ad copy, webpage copy, and literature.
Each excerpt is x-rayed and dissected to reveal what makes everything tick, how it works — on the most granular level. (Hence, atomic.)
It covers all the tools, techniques, and psychology we touch on here, but in their full depth. Making it easy to master these “devices” and then apply them to your own persuasive writing. You can even filter by author or brand to steal the secret sauce from your very favorite writers, copywriters, and brands.
Same as before, I’ve still got a forever deal for you.
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Even if the internet ceases to exist. I’ll toil day and night to make sure you receive a physical copy. With however many thousands of excerpts this accumulates over its lifetime.
Pinky promise.
David Abbott’s “Via Veneto” Ad for Sainsbury’s
Eat the same pasta they eat on the Via Veneto. (Via Sainsbury’s).
No-one knows as much about pasta as the Italians.
There’s evidence that it was a revered dish as early as 5000 BC and its popularity is certainly not on the wane.
Today, the average Italian eats 60lbs of pasta a year.
(In England, we manage only 2 ½ lbs each.)
Not unnaturally therefore, when we decided to start selling our own range of pasta we knew exactly where to go:
Italy.
We went, in fact, to Parma where the local pasta is as celebrated as the local ham.
And as you might expect, we demand nothing but the best.
Sainsbury’s pasta is made from durum wheat and no other.
(Softer wheats are cheaper but the pasta becomes floury and flavourless when cooked.)
We specified fresh eggs, never dried.
And in our tagliatelle verde it’s real spinach that gives the pasta its colour and flavour. 🏁
The hook plays on status. “Look at them eating that delicious pasta. That could be you.”
Every sentence gets its own paragraph. Easy to digest.
And note how Abbott uses the “how” (and what happens without that “how”) to point back to the idea, “we demand nothing but the best.”
