Leading the reader to a conclusion
I'm willing to bet many of the frequent visitors here in the copywritng forum know about the double readership path. That is, giving the reader an emotional reason to buy, and a logical reason to buy.
Right now, I'd like to touch on the subject of logic.
Politicians and the news media in particular are very good at presenting the facts, then leading the viewers/readers to a conclusion. If you've ever watched foxnews or cnbc, you know this to be blatantly obvious.
(Although I have no supporting evidence for this argument, I'm willing to bet it's because people just don't like to think for themselves anymore, they'd rather have someone else do it for them.)
It's possible to lead people to a conclusion in advertising too. The only one that I can recall at the moment was an infomercial about coral sea salt (or something like that):
The guy said something like:
"The population of Japan has a very low rate of cancer. People in Japan also eat a lot of coral sea salt. Therefore, if you eat coral sea salt too, you can avoid getting cancer."
Of course, the logic is not sound. Nobody knows why the people of Japan have such low rate of cancer. But it wasn't until after I broke out of the hypnotic/entertained state of mind that I realized that a conclusion was forced onto me.
There's a lot more going on than just applied psychology when someone reads a sales letter. There's also a sociological aspect as well. Although we like to think we can shape all of our own thoughts and opinions, it's just not so. We are conditioned and trained from birth to death. The wave of humanity tends to push us in the same direction.
For a small period of time, my reality (or perception of reality) was coral sea salt can prevent cancer because I was told so by a slick salesman.
Dave Maschke
Right now, I'd like to touch on the subject of logic.
Politicians and the news media in particular are very good at presenting the facts, then leading the viewers/readers to a conclusion. If you've ever watched foxnews or cnbc, you know this to be blatantly obvious.
(Although I have no supporting evidence for this argument, I'm willing to bet it's because people just don't like to think for themselves anymore, they'd rather have someone else do it for them.)
It's possible to lead people to a conclusion in advertising too. The only one that I can recall at the moment was an infomercial about coral sea salt (or something like that):
The guy said something like:
"The population of Japan has a very low rate of cancer. People in Japan also eat a lot of coral sea salt. Therefore, if you eat coral sea salt too, you can avoid getting cancer."
Of course, the logic is not sound. Nobody knows why the people of Japan have such low rate of cancer. But it wasn't until after I broke out of the hypnotic/entertained state of mind that I realized that a conclusion was forced onto me.
There's a lot more going on than just applied psychology when someone reads a sales letter. There's also a sociological aspect as well. Although we like to think we can shape all of our own thoughts and opinions, it's just not so. We are conditioned and trained from birth to death. The wave of humanity tends to push us in the same direction.
For a small period of time, my reality (or perception of reality) was coral sea salt can prevent cancer because I was told so by a slick salesman.
Dave Maschke
Direct Response Copywriting
Direct Response Copywriting