“I’m not here for your amusement. You’re here for mine.” – John Lydon, Born Jan. 31, 1956. It’s a very important attitude to have toward your audience and your chosen topic as a writer. Though most people would get this backwards. “You’re here for the customer! The customer is always right! The customer is king!” […]
If You Don’t Care About Your Thing The MOST, No One Else Will Care At All. Read More »
“Life is a corrupting process from the time a child learns to play his mother off against his father in the politics of when to go to bed; he who fears corruption fears life.” – Saul Alinsky, Born Jan. 30, 1909. A lot of advertising writers talk some bullshit like “I use persuasion, not manipulation”
Come Get Corrupted With Me And Let’s Get Rich (While Helping People) Read More »
“I am for the art of ice cream cones dropped on concrete.” – Claes Oldenburg, Born Jan. 28, 1929. This is our shared art also. The art of concise, visual imagery that evokes a reaction formed of personal emotions dredged from inside the audience, rather than from our words. These reactions are more powerful than
Emotional Manipulation Through Shared Imagery (It’s Easy!) Read More »
“Impatience translates itself into a desire to have something immediate done about it all, and, as is generally the case with impatience, resolves itself in the easiest way that lies ready to hand.” – Edward Sapir, Born Jan. 26, 1884. Patience may be a virtue – but the patient are always very difficult to entice
You Want It Now? Too Bad. You Have to Wait… Read More »
“Bias and prejudice are attitudes to be kept in hand, not attitudes to be avoided.” – Charles Curtis, Born Jan. 25, 1860. BIAS! PREJUDICE! Those are bad words, right? In general, in one’s personal interactions with other people you don’t necessarily want to APPLY bias and prejudices if you aim to be a fair and
Bias and Prejudice are the Persuader’s Friend Read More »
“When people ask for time, it’s always for time to say no. Yes has one more letter in it, but it doesn’t take half as long to say.” – Edith Wharton, Born Jan. 24, 1862. When it comes to making sales, if a prospect says they want to think about it, it means they aren’t
They Can’t Walk Away From the Sale if You Trap Them in a Super Fun Maze. Read More »
“The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.” – Francis Bacon, Born Jan. 21, 1561. You’ll see me waffle on whether what sales copywriters and ad men do is “art” or not. But whether it is or isn’t – that’s irrelevant to whether the methods of CREATING art are useful to us
Making Your Minor Marvels More Mysterious May Magnify How Much They Matter Read More »
“All writers are liars. They twist events to suit themselves. They make use of their own tragedies to make a better story… They are terrible people.” – Nina Bawden, Born Jan. 19, 1925. You ain’t no journalist. You ain’t no oracle. We are making shit up to manipulate people’s emotions, and thereby their behavior. That
Let’s Be Honest. You and I Are Both Liars. Read More »
“Agitate! Agitate! Ought to be the motto of every reformer. Agitation is the opposite of stagnation – the one is life, the other death.” – Ernestine Rose, Born Jan. 13, 1810. One of the best tricks I know for starting a “push” conversation in the mind of a stranger is to acknowledge their frustrations, and
Stagnation is the Mind Killer, the Little Death Read More »
“We have been endowed with the capacity and the power to create desirable pictures within and to find them automatically in the outer world of our environment.” – John A. MacDonald, Born Jan. 11, 1815. Many diatribes on the “power of positive thinking” center on this kind of idea. That vision can instantly lead to
Universe Hacking and Other Fun Persuasion Tricks Read More »
