Laugh And The World Laughs With You--Even In Business

by Bonnie Boots

Because I work with so many small businesses, I get a lot of trade magazines and related email. Yesterday I got a sales pitch that was so funny it made me laugh out loud. It was so LOL that I immediately clicked through to the company's web site to see if there were any more chuckles. Sure enough, the first page to greet me was roll-on-the-floor funny.

Humor can be a real door opener. It can make people open your emails. It can make them want to visit your web site. It can make them want to purchase your products.

There's only one problem with the oh-so-funny email I received. The person that wrote it was dead serious. They had no intention of making me laugh.

The email invited me to attend a $250 a day seminar where I would learn how to help any business put on a friendly, approachable, public face by writing emails and websites in plain, everyday language, rather than in sterile and off-putting corporate speak.

The email was written entirely in corporate speak. So was the web site.

Like I said, it was hysterical.

All my email friends thought it was a hoot. That's what we do with things that make us laugh-we send them around the world so everyone can laugh along with us.

That's the definition of "viral marketing," creating a piece so funny that everyone wants to share it with their friends. There are two ways of accomplishing this: humor through intention and humor through lack of attention.

The business that created that fall-on-the-floor email went viral by sending me a sales pitch no one read with full attention-except me. That lack of attention on the company's part paid off big time in terms of going viral--I sent it to people all over the United States, Canada, England and Australia. By now, it's gone around the earth more times than John Glen.

But achieving that level of viral status likely did little to fill up the workshop. And filling up the workshop is, after all, the purpose of the piece. That means the company's aims were not met. Money and opportunity were both wasted.

The second means of going viral is humor through intention. When I forwarded that email to my friends, I did it with the intention of making theme laugh. They did. That piece met my purpose entirely, and it was entirely free. Score one for me. Score zero for the company that created it.

That same morning, I got another email from someone that makes an obvious effort to be, if not fall-on-the floor funny, then clever. The email was from Paul Myers, publisher of TalkBiz News. The subject line of his email was "Lying sacks of Twit," a title that immediately made me want to open it.

Inside, I found a rant about people who are careless or misleading in their use of language, especially as regards email subject lines.

Specifically, he doesn't like subject lines that lie.

Myers doesn't like people who send emails with "Personal" on the subject line, when they are neither personally acquainted with you nor sending a personal message.

When Myers replied to one of these deliberately misleading emails pointing out the negative aspects of lying to get someone to open an email, the sender replied, "So? It works!"

Another person forwarded Myers an email he'd gotten from a famous motivational speaker that used the deception technique.

"He seemed to think that this was some sort of conclusive argument for his perspective." Myers wrote. "If poking kittens with pins is mean, does it magically become
nice if you can find proof that Mother Theresa did it?"

Myers went on to point out that the "everyone is doing it" argument is no argument at all for deception and lying. "I remain singularly unconvinced that lying "works" better than other creative and intelligent ways of getting attention," he said.

Although I read Paul Meyer's entire email, the most active parts of my mind remoaned locked on to that image of Mother Teresa poking pins at kittens. When picture appear in my mind, my fingers get itchy.

I opened an image editor and spent a few minutes creating a picture of the saint sinfully poking a poor pussycat with a BIG pin. Here it is:

It made me laugh, so I decided to share it with friends. I put the picture on my blog, along with a phony news report titled "Does New Photo Prove Mother Teresa Poked Kittens With Pins?"

It was filled with quotes taken directly from Myers email, but edited to be deliberatly misleading.

[Rooters]…In a move that rocked the religious world, Bonnie Boots today released a shocking new photo that may prove Mother Teresa poked kittens with pins.

When asked how she came by the photo, Ms. Boots gave few details other than to say, "Paul Myers asked for proof. I showed it to him. This is personal, private business between him and me."

Ms. Boots then showed this reporter an email she received directly from Mr. Myers in which he asks her "…if you can find proof that Mother Theresa (sic) did it?"

Later in the letter, he says, "I'd consider it a "personal" favor."

It is unknown why Mr. Myers suspected Mother Teresa poked kittens with pins or why he asked Bonnie Boots if she could find proof of it.

Ms. Boots speculates that Paul Myers may have wanted the photos as a means of drawing attention to himself. She pointed to a line in his email in which Mr. Myers writes, "…lying "works" better than other creative and intelligent ways of getting attention."

Bonnie Boots describes herself as a "digital publisher." She has been repeatedly implicated in the production of images and material used in Internet marketing.

Little is known of Paul Myers, other than that the place he lives in is eerie. He was unavailable for comment.

The release of the photo sent a shock wave of concern around the world, with many speculating that millions of people will now begin poking kittens with pins as a way of honoring the beloved saint. Asked for comment, the Vatican's only response was "Monkey Holy See, monkey do."
 
After publishing the post to my blog, I sent an email to Paul Myers letting him know there was an article related to his email. At the blog, he commented," Brilliant! A re-contextualization worthy of Sean Hannity. Thanks, Bonnie. THAT was funny. ;)
Paul"

I replied to his comment with a comment of my own. "Paul, you force me to let the poked cat out of the bag. I am the creator of the "Sean Hannity" character and write the major monologues for the nightly show. But credit for bringing my character to life goes to the actor that plays "Hannity," Many will be surprised to discover that actor is none other than Bea Arthur, beloved co-star of the 80's sitcom, Golden Girls. Bea spends more than four hours every afternoon with a skilled make-up artist who applies latex prosthetics to turn Bea into "Hannity." A stuffed shirt completes the transformation. Bea says she's delighted "Hannity" can finally "come out of the closet."

"Colbert gets all the attention," she reportedly said, "but what we're doing over on Fox is far more sophisticated and nuanced. I guess we're just over the heads of the audience that watches Comedy Central."

Because my blog has an RSS feed that sends my headlines and tags out to a number of blog directories (tags that included buzz word/celebrity names ) my traffic quickly rose…and so did my  subscribers.

Some of those subscribers will quickly drift away…as soon as they figure out the Mother Teresa photo is a hoax. But others will stick around to see how entertaining I can be, even when dishing out business advice.

Score for me:
*I made some people laugh--especially myself!
*I got some new subscribers.
*Paul will get some new subscribers.

And that, I did with intention.




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