The late copywriter Jim Rutz once told a story about how something he wrote accidentally went viral.
Jim was, no exaggeration, one of the top 3 copywriters on the planet in his day.
And he said he’d write a financial promo and put one of his own opinions in almost as a throw-away thought… and suddenly it sails through the process of approval from the client, the legal department, and the editors and is being quoted as fact in the financial news – even though it was an opinion, from a copywriter, who is admittedly not an expert at all on the subject.
Christopher Nolan said the same happened when Batman Begins came out.
There is a scene where Bruce Wayne falls through some ice.
Next, he’s in front of a fire freezing & shivering, being told:
“Rub your chest, your arms will take care of themselves”
Sounds legit?
Maybe it is, maybe not. But Nolan said it was a bit hair-raising when he noticed suddenly it was being taught to boy scouts as some kind of survival tip, even though he basically pulled that throw-away line right out of his arse!
Another example:
Many years ago I decided to probe around in the prostate problem niche.
I wrote an eBook with a backend offer in place, started generating traffic via a particularly aggressive kind of SEO (that briefly worked in the early 2010’s, does not work anymore) that was getting me sales and things were looking pretty good.
So good, something I said as a throwaway opinion was suddenly popping up in a bunch of forums, etc.
It was not something that would hurt anyone (it was not a “health” tip – just a tip about an obscure kind of doctor people might want to get an opinion from that had nothing to do with urology). But it was being quoted as some kind of breakthrough for a few weeks around various forums, etc before petering out.
Another example:
Last year, I wrote an email about actor Viggo Morgensen.
And, specifically, how when making the Lord of The Rings movies (he played Aragorn), he got so “in” character he was sleeping outside, carrying his sword everywhere, wandering off in the wilderness alone, basically becoming “one” with Aragorn, where the other actors didn’t know where Viggo ended and Aragorn began.
To which I got a reply guy chiming in with this myth:
“Dustin Hoffman did the same in the movie Marathon man with Lawrence Olivier. In order to look tired, Dustin did not sleep. He told so to Sir Lawrence Olivier who told Dustin: “Young man , how about acting? This answer stung young Dustin. I think Sir Lawrence Olivier was right.”
Nope.
Reply guy was suckered by a similar urban legend that went viral on its own.
According to customer Brian Timoney – one of the greatest Method Acting teachers on the planet, with the track record and students to prove it – it went down like this:
Dustin was filming one of the scenes in LA. Went to an industry party, was a bit worse for wear, and then took a night flight to New York for the next scene that was being shot there. He didn’t sleep much.
He turns up on set looking like hell, and Laurence asks why he looks like he does, and he explains he went to a party and had a night flight but it didn’t matter much, in fact, it was somewhat helpful as the scenes they were doing were the torturing scenes and he should look disheveled and discombobulated.
Laurence, as a joke, says to him, “Why don’t you try acting, dear boy?”
That’s how Dustin tells the story and hates it when it’s mistold.
The truth is, they got on like a house on fire. They really liked working with each other and became lifelong friends. Dustin also tells how Olivier often asked him if he was “too big” in a scene.
Olivier knew he was a stage actor, and Dustin was a film actor mainly, and he took advice from Dustin on how to pitch the level in a scene.
But of course, every misinformed anti-method person loves to mis-tell that story as some sort of evidence that method is mad, bad and crazy. Even though the world’s best actors use it, go figure. Having said that, if they can put Jesus on the cross, anyone is fair game.
One more example of fabrications going viral:
There is a classic Bugs Bunny cartoon episode where he’s mocks & insults Elmer Fudd who was hunting him by calling him “Nimrod.” Nimrod, of course, being a character in the book of Genesis who was a mighty hunter and tyrant.
i.e., he was mocking Elmer Fudd for being a terrible hunter.
After that?
Calling people “Nimrod” became slang for being an idiot, foolish, inept, etc.
But that had nothing to do with the context.
The “crowd” has been wrong about that, too, as it almost always is.
I don’t know where else I’m going with this.
So I will wrap up with, you can learn more about the paid Email Players newsletter here:
Ben Settle
