Not long ago, I watched the “Brat Pack” documentary with Stefania.
The documentary was made by actor Andrew McCarthy, and is about the gaggle of young 1980s actors whose movies I grew up watching called the “Brat Pack.” And, specifically, the documentary is about the fallout of an article at the time mocking them via a play on the “Rat Pack” who were more mature, polished, and prestigious. It’s worth watching if for no other reason than to see the tremendous power – for good or bad – of rhetoric and narrative flipping.
In this case:
That clever magazine article title — it was not even intended to be any kind of hit piece — not only screwed with some of those actors’ heads for the last 35 years (you can tell it still bothers some of them to this day), but also significantly altered their careers and, in many ways, even the kind of TV shows that came after.
(Friends, etc)
All from one rhetorical play on words.
It reminded me of the line in Sideways where Miles says:
“I’m not drinking any fucking merlot!”
Right after that movie came out and due to that ONE throw-away line… Merlot sales tanked for years, even though the character said it not because he hates Merlot, but because it reminded him of the wine he was saving to originally enjoy with his ex-wife.
I remember talking to a wine maker about that.
He said he had to label his own Merlot with some other prissy European name to sell any of it, as that is how bad the stigma had gotten. On a similar note: that’s also a lesson in shrewdness in and of itself Walt Disney used to make the ugly, poisonous weeds growing on the Disneyland grounds sound exotic and hide what they really were to fool investors.
Rhetoric is one helluva tool of persuasion or repulsion.
I highly recommend doing a serious study of how to use it.
And, especially, using it in emails using my Email Players methodology.
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Ben Settle
