New Year’s Day the sink backed up. I had unclogged it a few days earlier with a 25-foot snake. Took the S-trap off, emptied the water, ran it through a few times. When everything was reconnected. I boiled a couple pots of hot water and ran it through for good measure.

My guess is that I only moved the obstruction further down the pipe. PRO TIP: do not run a block of butter through the garbage disposal. Doing so turns it into a block of whipped butter that clogs the pipe.

Anyway.

This time the snake was not the charm. Called 3 plumbers and only one was willing to come out for an extra holiday fee.

Went and bought Drain-O, poured half a bottle down the sink at 11:56 AM. The advertising slogan says, WORKS IN 15 MINUTES!

Except it didn’t. About an hour later I put the rest of the bottle down the sink.

Not only was it not working, but the sink was now filling up with water from knows where.

Because it is a harmful chemical, now I’m worried about on the kids or pets touching the murky water. Or that I’m going to have to bail it out and remove the S-trap and snake it again.

Plumbers don’t like having to work around Drain-O because consumers are too cheap to call them in the first place.

The dishes were piling up in just a couple hours. You realize how much you need indoor plumbing when you don’t have it.

Checked on it throughout the day as 15 minutes turned into hours. Water wasn’t getting any higher but it was ugly. Did see a couple air bubble float to the surface, so that was hopeful.

Forgot about it for a bit. Went downstairs after a few more hours …

AND THE SINK WAS MIRACULOUSLY CLEAN!

All the water down where it was supposed to be and even the sink looked brighter.

Microwave clock said 7:23 PM.

Elapsed time for Drain-O to work on the whipped butter fatberg was 8 hours and 27 minutes.

Not something they are likely to put on their packaging, because 15 minutes sounds like magic.

Moral of the story: The majority of advertising claims are truthful – in that they do eventually work. Might not be as fast as they say, or as fast as you like. But it will work.

This applies to your marketing efforts as well as what you are selling.

We knew this European couple who were fun to be around. They were American citizens, well-integrated and all that. But they had retained a certain presence of mind that often resulted in good conversation.

One time the lady was complaining about Disney movies, having a young son in thrall to the Mouse.

“I don’t like being told what to feel,” was one of her gems.

Hunh. This was years ago and I thought, thank you for being so smart in your European way.

I thought she was correct then as I do now.

Kid movies today are manipulative. Watching them as an adult it is like a paint-by-number, feel this then feel this experience. I think they have gotten more so, especially if you take into account last issue’s discussion of Netflix content.

We also recently watched the Wizard of Oz, and while it had its own emotional structure, it felt like more of a story and experience and less than a lecture. Or social justice programming for that matter.

I think we as business owners can fall into the same trap if we aren’t aware of what we’re doing. Yes, I use my own program, MANIPULATION, to identify emotional triggers and use them in my marketing and content. As I think you should as well.

To avoid coming across like you’re trying to twist your customer into a pretzel I’d say start with an emotional trigger, such as curiosity. Write that headline that intrigues them or is so quizzical they want to find out what it’s all about. And if you’re telling a story, just fulfill the promise of the curiosity – let them know what it means and how it affects them.

When you do so I think you are engaged in fair trade. You are drawing them into your little booth with a hook and then feeding them the rest of the meal. If you’re good, and your offer continues to appeal to the, they will buy. And if they don’t, well you will be remembered at least. Either way you are doing more than just jerking them around – but only if you use the triggers as a starting point and actually offer something substantial in return for their attention.

BITCOIN REACHING ALL-TIME HIGHS! Was the recent headline.

Just a couple months ago it looked like the party was over.

Bitcoin has been in and out of the news for a decade. Where the price will be next week is anyone’s guess.

But I am 100% certain about what drives Bitcoin, and it’s not even a guess:

Stickin’ it to the man!

The premise if Bitcoin is currency independent of a central bank or nation. That is fact.

The promise and advertised benefit of Bitcoin varies on the publication, but it is always about getting away from “fiat” or government-controlled money.

When the price is trending up as it is right now, the mania is obviously about getting rich quick.

And the core of all get rich quick programs is stickin’ it to the man.

I first coined this phrase when I was studying The Lazy Man’s Way to Riches by Joe Karbo. I covered it in How to Create Million Dollar Products and MANIPULATION.

As an emotional trigger it is a recognition that the game is rigged against the common man. It is a desire to not only achieve material comfort but to politely thumb your nose at the establishment or not so politely let the bird fly. Preferably as you jet off on a private plane.

Stickin’ it to the man is probably required in a system that is in fact difficult to navigate. People need at least the fantasy that somehow they can find a side-door or a red pill to opt out of a system that rewards few at the expense of the many.

I think Bitcoin satisfies this appraisal and where it winds up nobody knows. But it will continue to satisfy the deep urge for people to have a fantasy they can win, that they can be non-violently anti-authoritarian, that they can be independent and that they, yes, can be rich.

I hope you see how stickin’ it to the man is a near-universal emotional trigger. People want to believe they can be free. Whether or not they are actually oppressed doesn’t matter. It’s all about singing that Johnny Paycheck song, Take This Job and Shove It.

We need to use this emotional trigger in our appeals.

On the surface, it is an obvious fit for business, marketing and get-rich programs. As in, You Can Retire A Millionaire! While it has lost some of its luster recently the Financially Independent Retire Early (FIRE) movement is all about stickin’ it to the man.

But you can use it in fitness programs just as easily. As in, Doctors Told Me I only Had Months To Live, Then I Found the Banana Diet!

Or you can use it in relationship material, as in, My Friends Thought I’d Never Get Married, But Dr. Rose Helped Me Find My True Love!

The core of stickin it to the man is thwarting other people’s opinions of what possible, escaping poor conditions and having the last laugh – while having fun the whole time. It has elements of revenge, spite, greed, advantage, superiority and status. But the main thrust is beating whatever system or situation your customer is stuck inside, currently hopeless for a workable solution.

Stickin’ it to the man is a solution that awakens dormant feelings of oppression and hopelessness. If you have a product that fits this profile people will be grateful you sell it.

We’ve gone over how they produce content based on an “algorithm” using emotional triggers. They come up with the genre, the niche and the triggers and put some meat puppets through the paces. Voila! Season 1 of Home with the Hendersons in the Small Town with a Dark Secret.

As they are filming Season 2, Netflix is watching the viewership numbers. Then they spool off the second wave and keep watching the numbers. If viewership, and/or a combination of the ability to drive new subscribers doesn’t work based on the numbers, Season 3 doesn’t happen. Or maybe it’s Season 4.

Point is, Netflix only keeps putting money into winners. Good lesson for all of us.

For you and I, we know that if we are envious of another competitor, either in our space or at large, it’s because we are projecting our own shame in the form of mild hatred. We didn’t do the work and they did and we mad. Waah. Do the work. You’ll have more success and wont have space for envy.

When talking to our customers we might want to use a milder approach.

Something along the lines of, “are you tired of seeing our friend trade up his house and driving that Tesla? What are you waiting for – there’s plenty of room in the Bitcoin rally! What if it really does go to $400,000?”

Etc.

First you have to understand that envy is there, simmering in your customer. It is eating them alive and I do mean in the bad way. They actually missed out, or think they did, on something, such as:

“Did you see your co-worker on the Zoom meeting? The one who lost 40 pounds during WFH? Maybe it’s time to put the Cheetos down and commit to your own fitness goals!”

And after you understand that the envy is there, you have to address it by giving them a step from where they are, which is stuck, to where they want to be, which is where they can show their whoever that they are just as good as them.

So there’s a little revenge at play as well.

But envy is there in our customers. We are all part of the world where some people are getting ahead, some are standing still and some are falling behind. Envy is awareness of the different progressions that are going on, and your customer’s own personal reaction to what they see. Or what they don’t see which you are reminding them of.

For marketing, envy is a lever. You can use it and not break someone’s spirit. They’re already feeling beat up and the envy is like a simmering pot of old rags. Marketing to envy actually provides a useful service for someone who is stewing and basically doesn’t know what to do, either through fear, shame or just not knowing. They do need a push and there are no other mechanisms out there as efficient as marketing that can get them moving. Spouse, church and so on are slow and people fight against them for various reasons. But marketing, well, we are professionals at making people move on their emotional distress.

I’ve given 2 examples. And if you’re reading you already understand that an emotion like envy is not in the product you sell. It is in the customer. If appropriate your product is either a subject of or a means to solve their envious state of turmoil.