I read an article today about the scientific search for anti-gravity.
Anti-gravity is just what it sounds like:
A mysterious force that fights gravity and could be used by humans for levitating, sending slim jims into space, and possibly even saving suicidal walruses.
Before I lose you, let me say this article was completely serious, just like the search for anti-gravity.
In fact, some very smart and successful scientists, working around the middle of the 20th century, and sponsored by the U.S. government, thought that the discovery of anti-gravity was imminent. One such scientist, by the name of George S. Trimble, had this to say:
“I think we could do the job in about the time that it actually required to build the first atom bomb if enough trained scientific brainpower simultaneously began thinking about and working towards a solution. Actually, the biggest deterrent to scientific progress is a refusal of some people, including scientists, to believe that things which seem amazing can really happen…”
I bring this up because it’s Halloween today.
Imagine if Trimble and his colleagues had succeeded. Today we might have real-life witch’s brooms, which you could hop on and fly around from door to door, trick or treating.
Now maybe this whole thing sounds outlandish to you. And that’s kind of the point.
Because the fact is, we have lots of really outlandish technologies out there, but we take them for granted.
Have you heard of CRISPR, which can turn an elephant into a frog?
Or of quantum computing, where a mystery box spits out answers that no normal computer could ever calculate?
Or even something mundane like your cell phone, which allows you to receive cat memes and pictures of lattes that your friends are drinking right now, through some spooky jiggling at the atomic level?
We accept all of these technologies and we believe that they’re true.
But anti-gravity?
Come on, get real.
And this has real implications for direct response copywriting.
Because if you’ve got some breakthrough new solution, people might be intrigued, but they will quickly get skeptical as well.
For example, I’m writing a VSL right now to promote a system for making money in real estate…
Without owning any property, without taking out any loans, and without investing any money, yours or other people’s.
Sounds too good to be true, right?
And yet it’s real and it’s legit.
The question then becomes how to convince people of it. And the answer might be something else I found in the anti-gravity article, this time from physics professor Louis Witten:
“Some of them were very simple ideas. The simple ideas are always hard to combat. Suppose somebody comes to you and says ‘I have a rock of bismuth that demonstrates anti-gravity.’ What do you do?”
Keep this in mind if you’re writing your own VSLs. And if you’re not interested in writing VSLs, but you are interested in writing advertorials, then you might get a Halloween trick or treat by looking here: