I’ve been studying Spanish, and so I was both pleased and displeased to find a bunch of Spanish-language NPR podcasts that cover Latin America.
Pleased, because the podcasts are obviously interesting, as I will show you in a second.
Displeased, because the podcasts are really above my level. For example…
I had to listen to the first podcast three times. And then I followed along twice more with with transcript, just to make sure I understood it.
I’m not sure would have done that for the Spanish learning alone, but the podcast was relevant to this newsletter.
In a nut, here’s the story:
On Saturday, February 12, 1949, a local radio station in Quito, Ecuador put on a “radio novella” of the War of the Worlds. “The Martians are coming!”
As you probably know, 11 years earlier, Orson Welles had put on the same in the US.
In spite of real-life panic and outrage that Welles’s radio drama had created, for some reason the Quito people thought it would be a good idea to do the same.
And so, a few minutes after 9pm, as a popular musical duo played on the radio, the announcer came on and said,
“We interrupt this musical evening to bring you an urgent news update. According to the information of our reporters…”
According to the information of their reporters, Martian spaceships were attacking Latacunga, a town a few hours away from Quito.
The Martians destroyed Latacunga and then started advancing. With lightning speed.
You can guess how it went from there:
As the Martians progressed towards Quito, the Quiteños listening to the radio, which included pretty much everybody on a Saturday night, became panicked.
Some hid in cupboards and others started running and screaming in the streets. Still others took refuge in churches, praying for some kind of divine help. A bunch of people confessed their infidelities to their husbands or wives.
So you could say the “Guerra de los Mundos” was both a big success and a huge disaster, much like the Orson Welles original.
But here’s where the story takes a twist. Because when the radionovella finished, the radio announcer came on and said,
“It was all just a show, people. There are no Martians. Calm yourself, and enjoy the rest of your night.”
The panicked and agitated Quiteños didn’t calm down. But they sure enjoyed the rest of their night.
A large mob assembled outside the Radio Quito building. As the radio employees huddled inside, the mob started throwing bricks and stones at the windows.
And, because at the time it was common to walk around the largely unlit Quito with kerosene torches, the mob started lobbing these at the building as well.
Soon the building set on fire.
The angry mob brought cans of gasoline to add fuel to the fire and make sure the entire building burned down. When firefighters came to try to put out the flames, the mob drove them away. “If you so much as pour out a drop of water,” the mob threatened, “we will kill you.”
Eventually, the police managed to disperse the mob and the firefighters put out the fire. But by then, eight radio station employees had died from smoke inhalation and from burns.
What’s more, another dozen Quiteños died from heart attacks during the transmission. At least a few people jumped to their deaths from tall buildings rather than be annihilated by the Martian rays.
The next day, the Radio Quito building was completely burned down.
Leonardo Páez, the director of Radio Quito who had written and produced the “Guerra de los mundos,” had managed to escape through a window to an adjacent building. He was now on the lam, hiding from the angry mob. Eventually, he would be forced to run away to Venezuela, never to return.
Curious story, right?
And like I say, relevant to this newsletter, which is about copywriting and marketing.
A few weeks ago, I heard a successful copywriter talk about his prospects as NPCs – non-playable characters. Basically, nonentities, without a soul, who are only there to advance your own quest.
From what I could understand, this copywriter was talking about it from perspective of,
”What does it do to you, as the copywriter, to interact with people in this way, and to treat others as just a means to your end?”
It may be bad for you psychologically.
And who knows. There might even be serious real-life consequences.
Like when you write a lead predicting the imminent End of America is here so you can sell stock picks… or announcing that fruits and vegetables are toxic so you can sell a greens powder… or breathlessly announcing an invasion of Obama clones, coming for your children, so you can sell a crank-powered radio…
In those cases, and even in less dramatic ones, who knows. Maybe one day an angry mob shows up outside your workplace and starts to throw kerosene torches at your windows.
But probably not, right? After all, the Internet provides us with way more insulation and security than those people at Radio Quito had.
Anyways, I don’t have a point here. I just wanted to tell you this NPR story and maybe get you thinking a bit. And also, to remind you I have a daily email newsletter. In case you’d like to sign up for it you can do that here.