BORIS BURDA: How to persuade people to believe anything
Western Australian salmon (Arripis truttacea). Artist: Arthur Bartholomew / Photo by Museums Victoria on Unsplash
ATTENTION — QUESTION!
A wise person once said that unethical advertising uses THIS to deceive the public, while ethical advertising uses THAT. Name these two opposites — THIS and THAT.
ATTENTION — THE CORRECT ANSWER!
It’s very simple. THIS is a lie, and THAT is the truth.
THE PROBLEM OF CHESTER DITZ
S
almon is a wonderful fish, but not a red one. The term red fish comes from the old meaning of the word «red» — beautiful, special, as in «red corner» or «red goods». That name was given to even more valuable sturgeon species. However, salmon is a red fish in the practical, everyday sense. That is, salmon has red-colored meat — surely you’ve seen it more than once yourself…
Is that always the case? Often, but not always. Atlantic salmon, for example, has red meat — no doubt about it. But the splendid nelma, which in ichthyological science is also fully a salmon, has simply marvelous taste yet white meat! The same goes for the exceptionally delicious muksun — also a member of the salmon family.
It may depend on the fish’s diet — those feeding on crustaceans often have pinkish meat (flamingos, for instance, turn pink for the same reason: deprive them of shrimp, and they turn pale). This has little impact on flavor — experienced chefs believe that white salmon is no worse than red, praising its delicate, creamy taste. But that’s what experienced chefs say…
The average consumer is used to salmon being red. Not like all the rest. So salmon with white flesh, like that of pike or carp, was automatically seen as ordinary fish, unworthy of the same price as noble salmon. Entrepreneur Chester Ditz, who set up production of canned white salmon, was clearly unhappy with sales.
But in 1890, luck was on Ditz’s side. He got a chance to complain about his troubles selling these fish cans to one of the greatest tricksters in U.S. history, a man whose attractions and shows drew crowds regardless of what he presented — even when it was outright fraud — Phineas Taylor Barnum.
THE NOBLE SWINDLER
Barnum began his business career with nothing but failures: he didn’t make money from a small shop, went bankrupt on lotteries, and even landed in jail for libel in his newspaper… His first real success came from meeting another trickster, who sold him for $1,000 (roughly $50,000 today) an old Black woman, Joice Heth, who was said to have nursed George Washington!
Barnum understood perfectly well what was going on, but with enormous publicity he toured the U.S. with her for several months until she died — and then staged an even noisier public autopsy, just to «prove» she wasn’t a mechanical doll! The doctors noted along the way that she was about 80 years old, not 161 as Barnum had claimed — but so what!
Soon he founded his own museum, where he displayed the fake «Fiji mermaid» (the head and upper body of a monkey sewn onto the tail of a large fish), as well as the real Chang and Eng Bunker, who gave the world the phrase «Siamese twins», and the microcephalic Henry Johnson, presented as a half-human ape.
He also profited from exhibiting strange people, such as the hair-covered Fedor Yevtikhiev (nicknamed the «dog-man») and a dwarf 89 cm tall, called General Tom Thumb, who could play Cupid for the French and Napoleon for the English. Incidentally, the dwarf also grew rich and once even saved Barnum from bankruptcy.
BRUTAL SHOWS
Barnum did not always deceive the public — in fact, the public itself was eager to be deceived. Huge crowds paid good money, lured by Barnum’s ads, to see a marvel of nature — the cherry-colored cat! What they got was a huge cat, completely black, and anyone who complained was asked: «Haven’t you ever seen a black cherry?»
Even U.S. legislation still bears traces of Barnum. When he brought his circus to a new city, he would plow a plot of land nearby for publicity, harnessing… elephants! Not everyone appreciated it, and North Carolina law still prohibits plowing with elephants. Try it — and you’ll be fined!
Barnum adored elephants in general. He paid $250,000 to import a white elephant from Siam (though he was disappointed — it had pink spots and brought little profit). And after his death, Barnum’s circus commissioned composer Stravinsky and choreographer Balanchine to create the world’s only «Elephant Ballet». Now that was dancing!
His famous zoo also gave the world the camel known as Old Joe — again, posthumously. A businessman from the tobacco state of Virginia wanted to sketch him, and soon everyone saw Old Joe, who became one of the most reproduced animals in the world. You’ve surely seen him too — on a pack of Camel cigarettes.
THE CLASSIC OF ADVERTISING
The success of his outrageous shows was largely due to advertising. Not always good advertising? Barnum said, «There’s no such thing as bad publicity!» Even terrible publicity pushes people to go and see for themselves what’s really there. His ads were everywhere — on posters, on fences, in newspapers, even on sidewalks: the more, the better!
He failed to buy from George Hull the Cardiff Giant, a stone block shaped like a man — clearly a fake. But he made a fake copy of that fake, and then went to court over which of the two fakes wasn’t fake. Even his critic David Hannum’s phrase «There’s a sucker born every minute» he stole — everyone thinks it was Barnum who said it.
Barnum often published not only anonymous praise of his exhibits in the press but also harsh criticism, calling them frauds. What difference does it make, praise or condemnation — people get curious and decide to take a look. Sometimes he displayed both the original and the counterfeit, then stirred up debate in the press over which was real…
He promoted not only oddities but also real performers. He toured the talented Swedish singer Jenny Lind across America, paying her $1,000 per performance, and with his publicity, the halls filled so completely that at one of her concerts, the pianist had to be passed over the crowd by hand — the crush was so intense he couldn’t get through.
The diversity of his shows — where after a freak circus or fake attractions came genuine talent — did not bother Barnum at all; it delighted him. Of his work, he proudly said: «The noblest art is that of making others happy». And he had the right to say so…
The sheer volume of advertising Barnum rained down on people didn’t trouble him in the least — no wonder he declared: «Without promotion, something terrible happens… nothing!» And any modern advertiser would agree with him, as with his other classic line: «Whatever you do, do it with all your might». And do you agree with him?
A GIFT TO THE WHITE SALMON
So what did the great Barnum advise Chester Deets to do in order to boost sales of white salmon? Deets couldn’t simply dye his product — such dyes didn’t exist back then (today it would be easy to find one) — and convincing the picky consumer that white salmon was just as tasty was impossible: everyone believed that salmon had to be pink.
A truly elegant solution had to be simple and inexpensive. Barnum’s suggestion met all these criteria. Moreover, the short phrase he came up with, which was printed on every can of white salmon, was absolutely true. Here it is: The only salmon that doesn’t turn pink in the can.
THE FISH THAT DOESN’T TURN PINK FROM CONTACT WITH THE CAN
So what here isn’t true? White salmon really doesn’t turn pink from contact with the can. Other fish don’t either — so what? Did anyone ever say otherwise? But the average consumer, with their average way of thinking, assumed something different: «See, this pink color must be coming from contact with the can — clearly something nasty…»
The results were phenomenal: Chester Deets’s factories, which produced canned white salmon, had to hire crowds of workers to run three shifts — that’s how quickly people were buying up white salmon, a valuable fish that doesn’t turn pink from contact with the can (unlike red salmon, which simply has nowhere further to turn pink).
Deets generously paid Barnum for his idea, but Barnum didn’t enjoy the success for long — in 1891, he left this world. He left behind much, including the Barnum Principle, which states that people believe generalized and vague personality descriptions to be accurate and personally applicable. Yes, yes — to you personally, too!
When copying materials, please place an active link to www.huxley.media
Select the text and press Ctrl + Enter
