Spam mail, Marketing, and Politics
My grandparents (yes, still alive thankfully) forwarded me a set of e-mails today. I don't normally write about politics, but sometimes the ignorance of the massess sets me off.
There's a marketing tie-in too. Always take what you learn about marketing and apply it to politics. It doesn't matter what government or country, it's always the same- Marketing politics is the biggest business in business. There's a variety of studies show that it's how a politics bill or even a political person is marketed that is a primary motivator of outcome rather than the actual poltiics and beliefs that should govern the process. Further there's a direct correlation between money spent and success.
Believe it? You shouldn't. I just made up most of the above paragraph. Parts of it are true, parts of it are false. It is an ancient marketing trick of mixing fact and fiction to tell a tale people WANT to hear. If I slapped this kind of a message into a "tell your friends" spam e-mail it would circulate the globe in a matter of hours. Why? Because this is the message people want to hear and they will believe it to be written by an authority as long as it is stated as facts and is relatively believable. You can even use this style of marketing to make logical jumps that aren't even connected.
In the e-mail that set me off on this tirade the conclusion was: Middle Eastern countries vote against the United States (with a list of %s on how often, yet no source on where these %s came from) because they hate us. Yet we give them foreign aid, therefore we should remove them from our foreign aid and exit the United Nations.
What the hell? My grandparents sent this to me because they believed it! A list of e-mails was included in it of other poor souls who recieved it. They missed a logical gap the size of the grand canyon SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO HEAR THIS and were willing to GLOSS OVER THE DETAILS.
Here's the gap. Is this e-mail suggesting that because the United States gives someone foreign aid that they should vote for what we believe in? Are they suggesting the 2 billion dollars we give Egypt to (in theory) help feed their hungry should somehow equate out to international bribery? And what the hell does any of this have to do with the United States withdrawing from the UN? Is it suggesting that because people vote against us we should just quit the UN? What kind of backwards narrow ass minded shit is that!? Yet my grandparents bought it enough they felt it important to forward to me and everyone else on their address book, simply because it told them what they wanted to hear, that the arab nations hate the United States.
Me, personally, I am not sure I support some of the foreign aid programs, nor am I sure I support the curren state of the UN, but it scares me that people can be duped by an amature marketing attempt like this: Imagine how they and many others are affected when a real professional does it while you're trying to vote for something like ... oh... President / Prime Minister.
Always understand the adjenda and motive of the speaker, always question anything stated as fact without supporting evidence... and STOP FORWARDING ME SHLOCK MARKETING.
There's a marketing tie-in too. Always take what you learn about marketing and apply it to politics. It doesn't matter what government or country, it's always the same- Marketing politics is the biggest business in business. There's a variety of studies show that it's how a politics bill or even a political person is marketed that is a primary motivator of outcome rather than the actual poltiics and beliefs that should govern the process. Further there's a direct correlation between money spent and success.
Believe it? You shouldn't. I just made up most of the above paragraph. Parts of it are true, parts of it are false. It is an ancient marketing trick of mixing fact and fiction to tell a tale people WANT to hear. If I slapped this kind of a message into a "tell your friends" spam e-mail it would circulate the globe in a matter of hours. Why? Because this is the message people want to hear and they will believe it to be written by an authority as long as it is stated as facts and is relatively believable. You can even use this style of marketing to make logical jumps that aren't even connected.
In the e-mail that set me off on this tirade the conclusion was: Middle Eastern countries vote against the United States (with a list of %s on how often, yet no source on where these %s came from) because they hate us. Yet we give them foreign aid, therefore we should remove them from our foreign aid and exit the United Nations.
What the hell? My grandparents sent this to me because they believed it! A list of e-mails was included in it of other poor souls who recieved it. They missed a logical gap the size of the grand canyon SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO HEAR THIS and were willing to GLOSS OVER THE DETAILS.
Here's the gap. Is this e-mail suggesting that because the United States gives someone foreign aid that they should vote for what we believe in? Are they suggesting the 2 billion dollars we give Egypt to (in theory) help feed their hungry should somehow equate out to international bribery? And what the hell does any of this have to do with the United States withdrawing from the UN? Is it suggesting that because people vote against us we should just quit the UN? What kind of backwards narrow ass minded shit is that!? Yet my grandparents bought it enough they felt it important to forward to me and everyone else on their address book, simply because it told them what they wanted to hear, that the arab nations hate the United States.
Me, personally, I am not sure I support some of the foreign aid programs, nor am I sure I support the curren state of the UN, but it scares me that people can be duped by an amature marketing attempt like this: Imagine how they and many others are affected when a real professional does it while you're trying to vote for something like ... oh... President / Prime Minister.
Always understand the adjenda and motive of the speaker, always question anything stated as fact without supporting evidence... and STOP FORWARDING ME SHLOCK MARKETING.
posted by VGsmart | 11:37 AM
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