One of my favorite movies for drawing applicable business, marketing, & influence tips from is Tarantino’s…
“Death Proof”
Tarantino has said that was the movie of his he least liked.
I say it’s one of his best.
And, this is especially due to the muscle carload of great psychology in it that can be applied to your marketing & persuasion endeavors.
Take the magnificent villain of the movie Stuntman Mike.
[NOTE: Spoilers galore follow]
Without giving away the whole plot:
There is a scene where he wants to get a lap dance from one of the chick characters in the movie who is supposed to give such a dance to anyone who recites a specific poem to her created by her talk radio show host as a gimmick. But, because she’s scared of him (he’d been stalking her all night…) she refuses.
Stuntman Mike’s retort?
Well, here it is right from the psychopath’s mouth:
“I understand if I make you uncomfortable. You’re still a nice girl, and I still like you. But I must warn you of something – you know how people say ‘You’re okay in my book’ or ‘In my book, that’s no good’? Well, I actually have a book. And everybody I ever meet goes in this book. And, now I’ve met you, and you’re going in the book! Except, I’m afraid I must file you… under… ‘chicken shit.’”
Long story short:
His shaming works.
And lap dances and body parts fly (literally) as a result.
The point:
Shaming works.
It has always worked.
And despite the wailing & gnashing of teeth of those who claim otherwise, it’s been the chief Tool of Influence (TOI?) of parents & politicians, school teachers & sports coaches, marketers & salesmen, right wingers & left wingers, fat people & skinny people, movie makers & comedians, mean people & nice people, dishonest people & honest people… as well as men, women, children, and even God Almighty the world over for thousands of years to get others to do their will. In fact, shaming is most often used by people being shamed to get others to stop shaming them — which is as amusingly nonsensical as those preaching “don’t you judge me!” while they are in the process of judging the person they are telling not to judge them.
Whatever the case, shaming works like crazy in marketing, too.
I’ve used it in just about every market I’ve ever sold in — including markets you are not “supposed” to, such as weight loss.
The key is simply knowing how to do it.
And perhaps I will go into exquisite detail about this in a future “Email Players” issue. But for now, I’ll just let this email speak for itself as something to soak in to the tender, easily-offended psyches of those reading.
On to the business:
The January “Email Players” issue talks about a far more powerful & far less hair-raising secret of influence than using shame. Something that is virtually the exact opposite of shaming, in fact. And, I believe it is one of the – if not THE – most effective copywriting technique ever used.
A tall order?
To which I retort:
Is it worth bothering with short orders?
Here is the link to subscribe while you still have time before the deadline racing towards you:
Ben Settle
