Half Truths Build Bad Brands

Giving your audience credit for being thinking, caring, seeing and somewhat intelligent seems to be a thing of the past.

Was it ever a thing? Before Bernays, sure – but that’s a topic for another post.

This will be all about the things I see in a whole lot of peoples’ marketing and (gasp) brands that are not only puzzling to me, but very much counter to what so many people claim to see in and believe of their audiences.

Let me give you an example, so that parsing my overly voluminous soapboxery is simpler…

A B-list (D, if we’re being real) “influencer” goes on an hour-and-a-half-long video talking about something that’s happened to them in the past. They’re making up most of the details and the correlation of those details to whatever it is they offer, and it’s obvious. Selective memory and directly contradicting parts of the story they told five minutes earlier makes it very clear that they’re (AT LEAST) extrapolating the story and their part in it, then scrambling to loosely tie it to their audience’s sturm und drang.

Classic lies. Exaggerations is a nice way to put it – but it’s not even about the exaggeration. It’s not even about the lie.

We all exaggerate. Some of the best brands are built on extrapolation and exaggeration and kind of taking things further than they should go.

It’s not about that.

It’s about treating your audience like they can’t see through your bullshit.

Now – I could go on about how it’s damaging to your client/customer and all that, but let’s focus more on what these lies and exaggerations and extrapolations do to the speaker/brand/liar…

Let’s say you’re a great liar and you manage to sell a ton of people into your lie.

Congratulations. You now have a stable of morons who are dumb enough to fall for it.

You make money – great.

And you get to spend your day dealing with people who have demonstrated that they’re nitwit enough to fall for your hubris.

Having been in the creative/branding industry for 30 years, one thing is invariably true – no matter your service, product, ability or reputation…

Dealing with people you know are idiots is a sure way to make you absolutely HATE your job.

And hating your job* is a great way to wind up hating your life.

*or career or business or brand or project – I use these terms interchangeably in a lot of instances. You are smart and can understand what I’m talking about in context.

This is also where impostor syndrome sets in. There’s a post about that somewhere.

Now – in the situation I described above, the B-list influencer has a tribe. They’ve managed to find people who either don’t see the bullshit because they’re morons, they’re complicit in the bullshit for financial/clout gain, or they’re just kind of there because they like the window dressing.

There are probably other reasons they’d put up with obvious half-truths and blatant twisting of narratives to suit a sales goal – but me? I don’t want people in my audience who are willing to overlook bullshit for any reason.

My audience is meant to be full of people who think. People who see things for what they really are. Not marks. Not easy sales.

Money is great. Sales… sure.

But – working with people who are demonstrably stupid, willfully ignorant or able to overlook either of those disorders for financial gain is NOT why I do what I do.

I’d rather go broke betting on the intelligence of the people in my tribe than to get rich sucking in all the chumps.

Now – you’re asking yourself “But, Jimbo… how do you know they’re lying? You weren’t there – you weren’t involved. Maybe it’s true and they’re just bad storytellers.”

Many of you don’t know this about your Good Old Uncle Jimbo – but I am a certified crime-fighter and master interrogator. Because I watch YouTube videos…

But, in all seriousness – some of my big hobbies and passions (this sounds bad) are murder, mayhem, psychopathy and crime. World War 2, too – but that’s another post. Since I was a lad, I was fascinated by criminals, killers, psychos and war. Not that I’m some dark guy and that I’m going to head to a shopping mall with an AR – it’s just something I’ve always been interested in learning about. The psychology behind it, the reasons, the situations and environments – I love it and I’ve been a voracious reader and consumer of this kind of stuff for nigh on 40 years.

SO – I have a reasonable understanding of interrogation techniques, people’s “tells” and the things that make up good and bad liars and criminals.

And this one…

Bingo.

Every tell, every body tic, every distraction and delay technique… in a soliloquy.

If you want to learn more about reading people, I suggest learning about the Reid Technique and it’s applications outside the interrogation room.

It’s pretty simple stuff – but once you see it, you see it everywhere.

And – after all of THAT… here’s the actionable business takeaway:
A liar is a liar. It doesn’t matter if they’re lying to you about murdering their family or about the reliability of their coaching programs… if it’s a lie, you can see it. In their language, in their body, in the way they hide parts and magnify others. You can see these tells in their copy, in their image, in their… brand. Be aware – it will change not only the way you see others and their offers, it will change how you look at YOUR offers. Do you have a tic that gives away that you’re full of shit?

Better check now.

Learning basic interrogation techniques will help you spot the phonies, help you avoid looking like one – and it will help ensure that the people you deal with aren’t a bunch of ninnies.

Or… you can use it to manipulate your family.