An angry Seth Taft stood up in front of the crowd and held up a tear sheet from a newspaper.
The year was 1967. Taft was the grandson of former U.S. President William Howard Taft, and was running for mayor of Cleveland. He held up the tear sheet to show a full page ad that had recently run in local papers. In large, bold letters, the headline read:
“DON’T VOTE FOR A NEGRO”
That ad had been paid for by Taft’s opponent in the mayoral race, Carl Stokes.
The odd thing was that Stokes was black and Taft was white.
And yet, here was Taft, the front-runner and shoein for the office in predominately white Cleveland, angry and complaining about how unfair this ad was. And it was the folks behind Stokes’s campaign who had paid for an ad seemingly telling you not to vote for their guy.
The long and short of it is that Stokes won that election. In the process, he became the first black mayor of an American city.
It’s impossible to say whether this ad won Stokes the election. Nonetheless, the ad is a brilliant example of effective messaging, and of a general principle that holds as true in political propaganda as it does in other influence disciplines, including sales and copywriting.
What’s the general principle? And more importantly, how might you apply it in your business?
For that, take a look at link below. It’s a post I wrote a couple years ago, inspired by this ad.
In case you’re looking for a slight edge in your business… or in case you have a significant disadvantage relative to your competition… this post might give you some good ideas: