Dustings #140
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There is nothing quite like the gentle beauty of hand shadow puppetry.
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When I'm done with this site, I'm going to do a large-format, Taschen-style coffee table book of emails from people offering to send me their product for free if I'll talk about it on the site.
And then you’ll see my response where I say, "I don't really do that, but if you want, you can send it to me and if I like it and end up using it, I’ll write it up for my review magazine. Or if you want it on the site, you can send ti to me for my What's the Worst Thing About series.”
And then I never hear from them again.
Now, I don't mind. I don't need more stuff to write about. But it's somewhat telling how much "I'm going to tell people the worst thing about your product" scares people away. Is that not exactly what you expect someone reviewing your product to do?
Craig Petty has made a habit of "exposing" his tricks on his YouTube channel (for example, this video that he put up just hours ago) so you know what you're getting when you buy it. That's a pretty bold thing to do, especially because I know Craig came up in the same era that I did, where we were told the secret is what you were buying.
In an email earlier today, Ellusionist tried a similar thing.
The Jungle Book Test - Method Revealed
A stupidly simple book test anyone can learn in like 10 seconds. There are 2 words to remember - and 1 of those words is 'remember' to make it even easier. The pages repeat the real story with the first word on each page changed to either the word MOON or the word REMEMBER. They open the book to any page. No force.
They remember the first word from that random page You ask them 1 question "could you easily draw a picture of this word? And then NAIL their freely chosen word - because nobody can draw the word 'remember' BOOM. Mind freaking read!
Here's a bit of marketing help for Ellusionist, or anyone taking a similar route in their marketing.
DON'T EXPOSE THE SECRET IF THE SECRET IS THE ONE THING EVERYONE IS HOPING IT ISN'T.
Inelegantly jamming the same two words at the start of every page of the Jungle Book is not a selling point.
The fact that you have to use your own book is already a weakness. The fact that they can only look at the first word is a weakness. The fact that it's fully unexaminable is a weakness. And now you're saying, "It also uses the first method a reasonably intelligent spectator might assume." You should have kept that part to yourself.
Here's what your selling point should have been: "It's bad, but that's why it's $15."