See I'd love to see if there's actual data on this that people use.

On the cover, yes. I'm not talking about the cover.

I'm talking about print and digital advertising where space is more available.

I was hoping if there was a more in-depth reason as speaking for myself and many others I've spoken to, this style of advertising is more annoying that enticing. I was hoping I'd hear of some deeper reason etc. It just seems like this is an example of "we've always done it this way" that's not been met with common sense.

>And in general in marketing, a testimonial is more powerful than a claim

I get what that means, but I would still surely need to know what it's a testimonial for. It's like if a testimonial is

Anne Robinson "Household appliance is really good"

I surely would want to know what kind of appliance this is.

>It's all about appealing to the most people as quickly and cheaply as possible

But if you learn actually nothing, how can you appeal to anyone?

>If I have never heard or read those books, those lines mean nothing to me. It gives me no information about what the book is aboutx characters etc.

That's not true.

The first one tells you that it's most likely some form of sci-fi (post apocalypse - world being destroyed) and that it's slightly irreverent or at least weird (what do towels have to do with this?)

The second one literally tells you that it's set in Regency England and is a novel centered around romance and social class.

The third one strongly implies dystopia of a specifically authoritarian nature.

The point is that this is all vastly more information than saying "this book is good" gives you.

>If you've got a horror novel, and Stephen King or Dean Koontz or Hot Horror Author says "it's the most terrifying thing I've ever read", people are going to be interested. The ploy is to get you to think "well, Hot Horror Author scared the pants off of me, so this must be REALLY scary!"

That makes sense. I guess it gets into the weeds where the title is ambiguous and the genre is unclear.

>there isn't much room on the front cover

That I understand, but I'm more talking about actual adverts. Things you see online etc.

Things like this

>For actual adverts, it needs to be short, sharp and to the point.

Right, but "to the point" also means it has to tell you something. No one learns nothing from these words.

>Not many people would watch an advert where it had a small wall of text that explained what it was about.

A wall of text I get, but something short and sharp can give you actual information too. I don't mean a whole exposition dump. Just a tagline that gives you some insight, the way that films do.

Here's some good example of what I'm trying to get at.

"On Thursday morning, the world was destroyed. Best get a towel."

"In Regency England, can love really cross classes?"

"When the state makes truth fiction, what can you know?"

That would be my interpretation of how you'd do something like this if you were selling the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and 1984 by George Orwell.

>For most people, the cover artwork, title and a quick one sentence positive can capture their attention and they can then read the blurb in the book or look up more information about it

Really? All these adverts look the same. How can they get attention when they're so interchangeable while the books themselves are so different.