After closing myself off from the cyber world for a month, I noticed something I hadn’t paid attention to before. As I read through all the blogs I subscribe to on how to improve your blogging, yourself, your parenting skills, your life, etc. I asked myself, “Do we really fall for hype?” and if so, “Why?”
Standing back made me realize the amount of pressure we receive to become better at everything, faster than anyone, all of it has to be painless of course. Some examples I saw in my Inbox:
How to set and achieve your goals faster than ever before.
Perhaps if I stopped sleeping, I could achieve my goals faster.
Learn How You Can Start to Age Backwards!
If I was born old, I could age backwards. That might work.
How to Create lasting Love.
With a lot of effort, compromise and not nagging my husband.
How to Enjoy greater success, wealth and happiness quickly and easily.
If I got everything I wanted, and got it quickly and easily, would I appreciate it? What would be the point of trying?
And strangely enough, as I started writing this post, I came across the following title: Hype Copy that Sells and How to Write it, by ProCopyTips
I read the section on: How to turn bad hype into good hype,
I’m going to summarize what needs to be done according to the article in ProCopyTips.
Say you have a headline that claims the following:
All your wrinkles will miraculously disappear overnight!
Well not only do you need to let your reader have proof, but you have to place the proof wisely, so you can “ambush” the reader. Wow, that sounds a little scary to me.
“When you finally do present your hype – your claim to have the biggest, baddest, best product on the planet, it won’t be mistaken for or accused of being hype (of the bad kind), but rather it will be seen as a descriptive and accurate statement of the obvious and the proven (hype of the good kind).”
So, my friends, do you fall for hype? If so, can you give us an example, and why it worked for you?
Gosh, I would like to think I don't, but I probably do. Some of those words, though, like "miraculous" and "instantly" do raise red flags to me. I'm less likely to believe the copy. Pam
Nope, I don't fall for hype. I'm at that lovely stage of life when I can see through all that and ignore. I'm happy with my own imperfections.
I learned through trial and error, and the wisdom that comes from age and experience. So I no longer fall for hype.
Er….Unless my wife promises sex. Then I'm a big sucker. And she gets me every time. LOL
@Pam,
I think age has a lot to do with it too. Don't you? I know my sixteen-year-old believes stuff more than I do.
@ladyfi
what about hype regarding an electronic gizmo? Like the latest phone or some product in the future?
@Matty
Sounds like what a wise decision.
I think age has brought enough skepticism to keep me from believing things that are just too good to be true.
Our consciousness is so inundated with hype I think that most of us tend to overlook it all, I know I do.
I am always amused at the magazines in the check out line at the grocery store; there are ALWAYS tag lines about how to have a fantastic sex life… month after month. The reality is that there is nothing new, just rehashing the same old tired stories.
A lot of self-help literature is like that as well. Of course, what gets my ire up are scams; hype for things that have no real value or can even be harmful. I can't believe that the Nigerian E-Mail Scam still seems to work on people in this day and age. Why is that??!!
I agree with Robert.
About the Nigerian email scam: most of the people dream to become rich easily.
I like to try new things and for example a new computer might get me excited 🙂 but it's a practical tool which makes my life easier.
Social media is very interesting. Experts copy each others, they tweet and support each others.
I wonder why we women don't support by tweeting posts/news which are important for us? (other than fashion or celebrities)
Why don't we support like men? (still most of the social media experts are men – and a few women are mostly playing the same game as men)
If you look how many retweets C Brogan post even if it is nothing special.
But an organization which is doing important work but is not as sexy as social media experts doesn't get that many retweets…
(Sorry – too long off the topic)
Sometimes I still fall for hype, like the great movie preview or book review for a mediocre or really bad movie or book. Don't fall for too much other stuff though…
I don't like hype and tend to follow the adage that you shouldn't believe your own publicity, so you certainly shouldn't believe anyone else's.
@Jeanie
So true. Age makes a huge difference.
@Robert the Sleptic
Yes, I know that scam and it seems they have the same one from Senegal to French speakers around the world.
@BLOGitse
Interesting topic you bring up. I have not researched it. Obviously you feel strongly about it.
@Patricia
Good point. I hadn't thought of that. But with movies especially. I was disappointed with Eat, Pray, Love. What about you?
@Madame De Farge
Good point.