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Weird little tips

JoeTheJuggler

Penultimate Amazing
JoeTheJuggler
Joined
Jun 7, 2006
Messages
27,766
So I've noticed many scam come-ons that follow a fairly new pattern: using the phrase "weird little" or something similar.

For example, "The weird little tip that can give you flat abs". Or even something like, "The surprising food that will make you a superstud."

The idea, I think, is to make it sound like "we're not sure why this works, and it's a surprise even to us that it does, but it does!" I assume this somehow makes the come-on sound more credible. (I suspect many of these things are only selling clicks to other advertisers anyway.)

Anyone else noticed this? Any ideas on what exactly the psychology is that makes something like that more enticing?

I think it's based on the same idea as having a supposed "skeptic" give positive testimony. It's as if they have no interest in the claim working, but it does anyway. Wow--if they can convince someone like that, then it *must* be true?

I think this goes all the way back to a confidence man working in the street having a confederate who, it is claimed, he has never met before trying the product and giving a positive testimony.
 
"Check out this neat trick a housewife discovered for whitening teeth!" I've noticed these type of ads too. I guess they work.
 
Most recently seen on a google ad pretending that a stay at home mum had discovered a revolutionary tooth whitening method, that "the product confounded experts" presumably dentists
Turns out what she did was use the two leading products in the range at the same time, so there you have it a new method that consists of buying both the brand leaders and spending twice as much money
personally I find Tippex more than adequate
<<British
:D
 
The whole "I'm just a regular mom with three kids who discovered the one simple trick that they don't want you to know!" online ad schtick.

Appeals to the layman, I guess. Those who don't want to know how it works, only if it works, and as instantly as possible. "Get ripped in 2 weeks with this one simple rule!", etc. etc.
 
I get that it's part of a long and old tradition of this sort of thing, but I'm amazed how this sort of wording has become such a widespread fashion just lately. It's sort of like the copycat "reality" TV shows, I guess. There's a formula that sells, so everyone copies that formula.
 
I think it's part of the anti-intellectual schtick that seems to go hand in hand with low grade woo. By saying "A housewife\kindergarden teacher" discovered it they're also saying that "those scientist chaps didn't have a hand in this"
 
Mongrel said:
I think it's part of the anti-intellectual schtick that seems to go hand in hand with low grade woo. By saying "A housewife\kindergarden teacher" discovered it they're also saying that "those scientist chaps didn't have a hand in this"
Click to expand...

I've been seen a lot of those lately - google ads seems to often have them. The unusually placed adjectives look to me to just just be bad translation from whatever language the originator speaks - for example, I just saw "scary signs of depression".

Now, depression is unpleasant and debilitating and problematic but is anyone really scared of it like they might be of, say cancer or liver failure? I don't think so.

Of course I decided not to click the ad to investigate further!
 
Well, of course it has to be weird. If it were to be expected, somebody would have thought of it by now.
 
Mongrel said:
I think it's part of the anti-intellectual schtick that seems to go hand in hand with low grade woo. By saying "A housewife\kindergarden teacher" discovered it they're also saying that "those scientist chaps didn't have a hand in this"
Click to expand...

Yep. But that of course is only the conceit in fashion right now.

Other times it's been to pretend to be scientific. My favorite example of this has been bogus unsubstantiated claims about the effects of vitamins and supplements hidden behind the weasel word "supports". (As in, "supports concentration, memory, immune response," etc.)

Speaking of pretending to be scientific, my favorite ads that depended on the idea that no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public were some old "Spanish Fly" ads in the back of magazines back in the '60s and '70s. They included the words "Placebo!" and "Spurious Cure!" confident that their clientele would think those were good things to say about their product.
 
Every time I open my Yahoo mail account I get the "One weird trick" ads. Usually, "Cambridge scientists have discovered...."
How to sleep uninterrupted, how to better your love life, increase testosterone, etc, etc.

they usually show either a fairly attractive girl or a rather self-satisfied looking older man along the lines of "smilin' Bob" from the Enzyte ads.
 
I have seen these too. I agree it is probably supposed to sound like "Wow we can't believe this either but it really works!" Uh huh.

The ones I find irritating that I have been seeing a lot lately are the ones that say, "She has found out the secret to looking younger. Plastic surgeons hate her!" Or "She has found the secret to whiter teeth! Dentists hate her!"

Arrgh. Seriously, do people fall for that?
 
My favorite, I saw today:
"Language Professors are DOOMED!
Use this weird secret trick to learn a language in 10 days!"

Weird AND secret AND a trick!? I'm sold!
 
ExMinister said:
I have seen these too. I agree it is probably supposed to sound like "Wow we can't believe this either but it really works!" Uh huh.
Click to expand...

And don't you think that is sort of related to the old thing about testimonials from dis-interested (or even "skeptical") parties? It's as if the seller is posing as an outsider, having no stake in his own product.

The ones I find irritating that I have been seeing a lot lately are the ones that say, "She has found out the secret to looking younger. Plastic surgeons hate her!" Or "She has found the secret to whiter teeth! Dentists hate her!"
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's pretty disgusting. It assumes first that dentists and doctors will ever want for more patients, and that they would actually seek avoidable suffering for their patients.

Arrgh. Seriously, do people fall for that?
Click to expand...
These things reach a LOT of people, and even a sale to one in a million can add up, I suppose.
 
Hit my paypal and I'll let you in on a strange little-known secret method of stopping these ads from appearing -- a method that the advertisers don't want you to know.
 
Everyone knows that all scientific discoveries were just happy accidents. It stands to reason that a few billion people on the planet, all consistently doing stupid things... well, one or two will hit on an unknown solution to an important problem. It's the new way to do science -- no real understanding involved, no expensive equipment or years of learning, just get out there and fiddle.

I am on Edison's path myself. I've already found a couple of thousand things that don't immediately make me wealthy. Like microwaving my money. But I'll keep trying. The weirder, the better!
 
marplots said:
Everyone knows that all scientific discoveries were just happy accidents. It stands to reason that a few billion people on the planet, all consistently doing stupid things... well, one or two will hit on an unknown solution to an important problem. It's the new way to do science -- no real understanding involved, no expensive equipment or years of learning, just get out there and fiddle.

I am on Edison's path myself. I've already found a couple of thousand things that don't immediately make me wealthy. Like microwaving my money. But I'll keep trying. The weirder, the better!
Click to expand...

Hey, even failures are success, you know what doesn't work. Also, for fuel efficiency, Sweet and Low works as well as sugar. You can add that to your list.
 
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