Earlier today, a bunch of scientists got together around the world, in seven concurrent press conferences. Their task was to announce a monumental and counter-intuitive achievement:
The first photograph ever taken of a black hole.
There’s been a lot of buildup to this event and a lot of public interest.
And now we finally know what a black hole looks like.
It turns out it’s much as expected. Black.
But while the black hole itself doesn’t look too surprising, the freshly released image shows some other stuff too. In fact, the total image looks rather like an out-of-focus, melted piece of Werther’s candy. It’s an orangish doughnut, slightly shinier on one side than on the other.
A pretty picture.
And interesting.
But after wondering at it for a second, you might reasonably find it’s time to get back to your everyday life.
And therein lies today’s humble marketing lesson.
You see, there’s an incredible amount of scientific insight contained in this blurry picture.
That orangish blob is an infinitely complex object (literally), completely outside of the realm of anything we are used to seeing in normal conditions.
Plus there’s a mysterious and fascinating reason why one side of the blob is brighter than the other.
I found out all about this in a video put together by some well-meaning physicist on YouTube.
He used cardboard cutouts to illustrate what’s actually going on in the picture. He talked about general relativity, about something called the Schwarzschild radius, and about photons shooting off into infinity.
And after watching his video, I felt I really “understood” what the image of the black hole is.
It had much more meaning than simply seeing a blurry, half-melted Werther’s candy on a black background. The image will stay in my mind for much longer, and make a much bigger impact.
This applies to copywriting as well.
In fact, it’s a crucial but almost-forgotten lesson from Victor Schwab, one of the most famous direct marketing copywriters of all time.
Says Victor, every good advertisement first has to capture attention…
Then show an advantage…
And then, crucially, help the reader GRASP that advantage.
In other words, it’s not enough to simply say your $80 t-shirt is made from the finest, most breathable, most durable merino wool.
You also have to make the reader grasp that if he buys this t-shirt…
He will get a soft friend he can comfortably and stylishly wear — for the rest of his life.
That’s the difference between simply seeing the first picture of the black hole, and grasping what it shows.
Anyways, no self-promotion for today. If you’d like to take a look at the enlightening video I mentioned, so you can grasp the first image of a black hole ever released, then head on over here: