eMarketWorks on the Internet

You sometimes wonder what the difference is between bullshit and marketing, especially internet marketing and beer  commercials. Harry G. Frankfurt, Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, has a little book out entitled, "On Bullshit", and I think a few of his comments are very relevant to marketing in general and internet marketing in particular.

"Since bullshit need not be false, it differs from lies in its misrepresentational intent. The bullshitter may not deceive us, or even intend to do so, either about the facts or about what he takes the facts to be. What he does necessarily attempt to deceive us about is his enterprise. His only indispensibly distinctive characteristic is that in a certain way he misrepresents what he is up to.

This is the crux of the distinction between him and the liar. Both he and the liar represent themselves falsely as endeavoring to communicate the truth. The success of each depends upon deceiving us about that.

The fact about himself that the bullshitter hides is that the truth-values of his statements are of no central interest to him … He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose."

You don’t really believe that those buxom hotties in the beer commercial are salivating over you because of the beer you drink, but your reptilian brain does. Bullshit marketing is aimed squarely at that part of your brain. That’s what makes you click that BUY NOW button when your rational brain is screaming NOT TRUE NO WAY WASTE OF MONEY at you.

Here’s the perfect example of bullshit marketing. How many sales pages have you seen that blast this claim at you, "I GUARANTEE THAT ANYBODY (EVEN A DOLT LIKE YOU) WILL MAKE MONEY USING MY SYSTEM." Then in that obscure part in the footer labelled, "Disclaimer", it says, "I don’t guarantee that anybody will ever make any money using my system and you will probably even lose money for any or all of the following reasons including that you spent money to buy my stuff."

So what good is that make-money guarantee in the sales letter? It’s not meant to be good or bad, just bullshit that suits the bullshit marketer’s purpose.