Big companies don’t have the monopoly on mass delusion

Just try enough not to be a lie

Here’s one of the mantras I use to understand the propagandas of life.

It’s just true enough not to be a lie.

This new sports drink contains nutrients, antioxidants, all natural ingredients, electrolytes, vitamins and minerals, and will help you flush out free radicals, toxins and impurities from your system.

Not really. If you examine the label closely, the drink contains mostly water, sugar, sodium, artificial flavorings and a heaping shit ton of marketing.

Unfortunately, because one half of one percent of the drink does, technically, contain real fruit juice, the claim is legally substantiated. It’s just true enough not to be a lie.

Of course, big companies don’t have the monopoly on mass delusion. People and organizations of all sizes and shapes will use the tools of persuasion and influence and mass hypnosis to fit their business needs.

Years ago, I was seduced into working for a company that positioned itself as a innovation studio. An inventor of disruptive technologies.

Which sounded sexy and interesting and fun. But six months into the job, it was clear that they were just a glorified digital media agency. A cadre of brilliant arseholes that made cool websites. Several of which did win innovation awards. But everything else was just hype. It was just true enough not to be a lie.

Bernays, the founder of modern marketing, put it best:

People are rarely aware of the real reasons that motivate their actions. In almost every act of our lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What things in your life are just true enough not to be a lie?

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For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

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Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.
scott@hellomynameisscott.com
www.nametagscott.com

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