End Of The World and Copywriters

3 replies
Well we didn't all come to the end over the weekend like the man behind the hype predicted...

(Harold Camping, the 89-year-old guy behind all of this, spent millions on "May 21 Judgment Day" ads. He put it on 150 radio stations (his own) and the Internet too)

Did prove a point to me though and did teach us a great lesson and thought would share...

You see...The man that predicted our world ending recently not only collected a lot of money from followers for helping getting the word out, but also had people believing so much that they were selling and giving away everything they owned.

And even though I don't say it's right...

A lot of people made some serious money from this event by buying the believers stuff for super cheap. However, if we're all going, what did the money matter either?

Plus people were charging money to the believers to walk their dogs and take care of the animals when we're all gone.

The ironic thing...if they believed so much we are all going to be gone forever, why did those people think someone will be there to take care of their pets after we're all gone.

They believed in the message or end so much that they didn't even think of that or overlooked that simple yet crucial point.

So why did I post this in here?

The power of believability. You see in copy we all strive to get the prospect to believe. Guess what he put on his site?

"Judgment Day... the Bible guarantees it!" He used one of the biggest proofs he could find to get out his message and gain instant credibility.

I think he could of made a way better or specific guarantee, but...

After all, if they don't really believe something will work or solve the problem, why would they buy it or buy into it?

Thought this would be a good lesson to throw in here because it shows, if you can get someone to believe the message or believe in something so strongly, the possibilities are endless and moves your profits into a whole other world.
#copy #copywriters #end #world
  • Profile picture of the author arfasaira
    Very interesting points you made here and certainly worth mulling over. Reminds me of the whole Nostradamus thing - I was a young lass back then at university and although no one really believed it, it was most certainly a huge topic of conversation amongst the students.

    I think Mr Doomsday did well out of it because he tapped into a very deep fear - fear of death and destruction. It makes me wonder if he actually believed it himself or whether he was doing it deliberately.

    I can't think of many fears more powerful than death itself. Not being morbid or anything like that, but I can somehow understand why people lost their sense of reason over this. I mean, if you were told you were going to die next week, your thoughts and feelings and every pore in your body would be steeped in fear and would probably consume you with any logical reasoning most likely going out of the window.

    That kind of fear is undeniably powerful and dangerous too - we've all seen what can happen in cults and how they use advanced manipulation and fear techniques with very powerful and real emotions to get people doing some very strange things.

    It makes me wonder what the next most powerful emotion is in copy - so overwhelming that it practically forces you to take action and buy.

    Interesting stuff - thanks for the valuable insight.
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  • Profile picture of the author Daniel Scott
    Guess you got the email from Jack Forde, too.
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    Always looking for badass direct-response copywriters. PM me if we don't know each other and you're looking for work.

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  • Profile picture of the author John_S
    A lot of people made some serious money from this event by buying the believers stuff for super cheap. However, if we're all going, what did the money matter either?

    The ironic thing...if they believed so much we are all going to be gone forever, why did those people think someone will be there to take care of their pets after we're all gone.
    The belief was only a few chosen people would be going. You have to study the specifics of this group, but it's essentially rapture 101. Only the faithful go.

    And the way you prove you are "rapture ready?" You sell your stuff.

    Lots and lots of principles for marketing here that are not always plain in the letters of your swipe file.

    Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance is one. For example, in studying a Michigan cult predicting world's end, the group got more cohesive and active after the date came and went.

    Because the group couldn't prove their belief through physical evidence, the poof became converts to their belief. If you get others to share your belief, that shows there must be something to it.

    Finally this shows the power, not of generic belief, but of what you'll do to prove you are one of God's chosen -- the inner circle. Lots of stuff for premium inner circle status upsell. But your bonus had better be of rapture level quality.

    And get ready, time's a wasting for next year's end times. That's the one predicted by the Mayan calendar as it reaches its end -- year zero. December 21, 2012. Haven't seen anyone looking into why the twenty-first of a month, however. The new "Friday the 13th?"

    The 'net is full of rapture-thinking. The singularity event has been called the geek rapture. That's the point where machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence for the first time.

    This is patent AI cult mentality, and possibly something Festinger might have predicted after the failed pronouncements of AI. None other than Bill Gates is quoted as saying by 1995 voice recognition would be so good computers would ship without keyboards.

    Part of this mentality can be seen in the effusive hopes for the semantic web. While different, it's sounds about the same.

    Everybody knows the concept that a million monkeys typing on keyboards for a million years, will reproduce the complete works of Shakespeare through dumb, random, chance. Thanks to the Internet we can now pronounce this False.
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