Reason…can never, of itself, be any motive to the will, and it can have no influence but so far as it touches some passion or affection. Abstract relations of ideas are the object of curiosity, not of volition. –David Hume, super smart Scottish guy who lived in the 18th century
Business schools have long been dominated by a ridiculous notion called rational choice theory, which is basically the idea that people make their buying decisions by carefully weighing the pros and cons.
It should be readily apparent to anyone who knows any actual humans that rational choice theory is a crock because people aren’t rational. Sometimes we arrive at decisions that are rational, but decision-making is not a rational process.
As copywriter extraordinaire Herschell Gordon Lewis points out: "When emotion and intelligence come into conflict, emotion always wins." According to Lewis, a great way to make your advertising copy a heck of a lot more effective is by replacing intellectual words with emotional words.
On pages 38-40 of Lewis’ book Direct Mail Copy That Sells, the author graciously supplies a list of emotional v. intellectual words that “show you how easy it is to shift word choice in favor of emotion."
If you’re a copywriter who wants to convince people to buy stuff – which is, of course, your job – get hold of a copy of Direct Mail Copy That Sells, Xerox pages 38-40, and tape it to your refrigerator.
Here are a few examples of what Lewis is talking about:
A lifetime of enchantment Is all I ask of you Dreaming of impossible Because it's what you do
Tether me to heaven like the stars across the sky Feather me with comfort and your lover's lullaby
Free me from a thousand woes My flesh cannot endure Shelter me with sunshine That flows from you so pure Tether me to heaven like the stars across the sky Feather me with comfort and your lover's lullaby
You can be my proof rock Solid as a stone Even when we're miles apart I'll never be alone Tether me to heaven like the stars across the sky Feather me with comfort and your lover's lullaby
There were always babies at the bus station and they were always crying. And these were not mild complaints. I couldnt understand how the least discomfort could take the form of agony. No other creature was so sensitive. The more I thought about it the clearer it became to me that what I was hearing was rage…
The rage of children seemed inexplicable other than as a breach of some deep and innate covenant having to do with how the world should be and wasnt. I understood that their raw exposure to the world was the world.
You dont think this is all a bit fanciful?
I do think.
How would a child know how the world should be?
A child would have to be born so. A sense of justice is common to the world. All mammals certainly. A dog knows perfectly well what is fair and what is not. He didnt learn it. He came with it.
—from Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy
You're gonna wonder why As you wander on your way The unfairness of the world Will make a body rage
Don't be scared of words Watch out for stones and sticks You won't get blown away When you build your thoughts with bricks
Perpetual injustice Is an insult to the soul Evil is eternal Resistance makes us whole
A thousand paths before us So many ways to live It's a wicked wicked world When we forget how to forgive
Laughter hope sock in the eye's Blog 