farmdoc's blog post number 294

Vance Packard’s 1957 book The Hidden Persuaders was probably the first book on marketing techniques that was written for the public-at-large. I read it in my teens. Since then I’ve been a keen observer of the increasingly sophisticated techniques used by marketers and advertisers to entice punters into concluding the advantages of buying a product or service on offer, outweigh the disadvantages including the price. Despite my mention last Thursday of primordial viral marketing, it wasn’t a mainstream marketing modality in Packard’s day – at least not by name, because the name wasn’t coined until 1996. But it’s sure a big deal now. It’s mushroomed as internet usage’s burgeoned – which signifies its success. I’m unsurprised, because it’s inexpensive to produce, and its dissemination to a potential global market of millions or billions, is free. Last Thursday darling Meg forwarded me this one which she’d received from her friend Jiga. It’s been removed from YouTube and other sites, but not from the Israel’s Road90. Yet, anyway. It’s viral, alright: clever, quirky, incisive. Also true. I knowest not if it emanated from Honda (which is possible, because in late 2008 Honda exited Formula 1, ostensibly for financial reasons, but not inconceivably for marketing/product positioning purposes) or from some non-Honda wag’s computer. Who cares? I reckon it’d resonate with Thomas Friedman, Amory Lovins and Al Gore. It sure resonates with me.