Europol, the European policing agency, which I believe employed Inspector Clouseau back in the 1970s, has just put out a provocative misinformation campaign.
It’s called “Crime Has No Gender,” and it shows 21 wanted criminals.
Their crimes include drug and weapons trafficking (Croatia), organized crime (Romania), murder (Belgium), and fraud (Sweden).
Of these 21 listed criminals, 18 are women. The conclusion being that women can be just as successful in the criminal arts as men.
Lies, I say.
Because even a cursory search of the statistics will show you that men commit serious crimes at a much peppier clip than women do.
So what exactly is the point of the Europol campaign?
Well, aside from the inspirational but false message that women can do anything they put their minds to, maybe Europol is just trying to warn European citizens that, yes, if you do see a woman grabbing a kid at a playground and dragging that kid into an unmarked van, then she might indeed be a kidnapper. Because women can be kidnappers, too.
This actually isn’t such a dumb idea.
Because the brain has a feature, or maybe a bug, called the “availability bias.”
We tend to judge probabilities by the ease with which we can think of relevant examples.
“A woman kidnapper? Gee, I haven’t seen too many movies like that. But a male kidnapper, now I’ve seen lotsa movies like that.”
And if you’re wondering what this has to do with copy, then the answer is…
Everything. Really everything. Let me say it one more time — everything.
Because if you want to make the availability bias work in your favor, just keep repeating your main claims over and over throughout your copy.
And then repeat them again.
Even though you might think it’s transparent… or tiring… or even dumb.
Repeat your claims two dozen times in half as many pages.
Because if you write the rest of your copy well, your reader won’t notice. But he (or she!) will finally remember and understand what it is you’re trying to say — and he (or she!) might even believe you by the time you dare ask for the sale.
Speaking of which, I’ve got an offer for you. I won’t make any claims about it — because it’s too late now, you wouldn’t believe me since I haven’t repeated them a dozen times. But if you want to check out my offer, then take a peek here: