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  • 26-APR-2026 | Tom McElligott’s “Graffiti” Ad for Minnesota Tourism

26-APR-2026 | Tom McElligott’s “Graffiti” Ad for Minnesota Tourism

Author

Dan Bogachek
April 26, 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.

This thing behaves more like a navigable map.

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.

If you join the waitlist below, you get exclusive lifetime access for an ultra-low flat fee when The Vault launches. (It’s looking like Q1 or Q2 of 2026.)

After all, a sweetheart deal is the least I can do to thank you for your support.

And as I’ve mentioned before, yes, I really do mean lifetime.

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.

Tom McElligott’s “Graffiti” Ad for Minnesota Tourism

In Minnesota we have graffiti, too.
It just happens to be 800 years old.

Everywhere you go in Minnesota art surrounds you.

You can find it among the half-hidden caves and waterways where Sioux and other tribes left it hundreds of years ago.

You find it in stunning sunsets filtered through pine trees towering high into the sky.

You find it in a deer that darts through the bush, a fish that leaps splashing from the water, a loon that breaks the misty morning silence with its eerie call.

You find it in the lush parks, tree-shaded boulevards, and exquisite malls of Minnesota cities.

You find it in the wide variety of professional and amateur theater, music, and dance throughout Minnesota.

And, of course, you find it in fine museums which Minnesotans have filled with art objects from Minnesota and around the world.

Art. It’s all there waiting for you in Minnesota. Enough to fill a lifetime of vacations.

Indoors or outdoors. 🏁

This ad is built on repetition. And remember:
Repetition legitimizes. Repetition legitimizes. Repetition legitimizes.

The recurring piece: “You find it…”

That’s a metric butt-ton of “you.”

We take all of that “you” and we start painting. With everything written from your perspective, these scenes unfold in your imagination as you read along. (Unless you’re the small percentage of the population with aphantasia.)

It’s a future visualization exercise — a mild form of guided fantasy.

To round us off, the call to action lives in the mailing form. If you liked what you just pictured, you’re probably curious to learn more, and it’s free to boot (remember also — this is pre-Internet!).