Once upon a time, the mighty Persian king Darab took a wife from Greece.
Her name was Nahid.
Nahid was beautiful and the daughter of the king of Greece, Filqus.
One night, while Darab and Nahid lay in the same bed, Nahid turned towards Darab and exhaled in her sleep.
“My God,” said Darab to himself, “the stench!”
The next day, Darab asked his court physicians to see what could be done about his wife’s bad breath.
They gave her an herb, sekander. It fixed Nahid’s halitosis.
But it was too late. Darab’s fire for Nahid had cooled. So he shipped her back to Greece to her father, even though she was already well pregnant.
Filqus, Nahid’s father, was embarrassed by the whole situation. And rather than admit his daughter had been rejected by the king of Persia, he thought it sounded better to simply claim that he, Filqus, had gotten his daughter pregnant.
Nahid eventually gave birth to a baby boy. She gave him the name Sekander, I guess to remind her of her shame and lost love.
When Filqus died, Sekander became king of Greece. He put together an army, invaded Persia, conquered all who opposed him, and wound up on the Persian throne, which was really his by right, since he was the secret son of the Persian king.
If you’re wondering what the hell you just read, it’s how the Persians, back in the 10th century, told the story of Alexander the Great.
I’m sharing this with you for two reasons:
1. Because it shows the lengths of unlogic we will go to to protect our pride and ego.
2. Because contrary to what you might have heard, modern advertising did not invent bad breath.
What it did do however, is make people sensitive to the idea they themselves have bad breath… and the consequences this could have.
So starting in the 1920s, women were told that nobody would want them if they were hali-toxic (“Often a bridesmaid… never a bride”).
And men were told that bad breath would get them canned (“Employers prefer fastidious people… halitoxics not wanted”).
Meanwhile, the sales of Listerine mouthwash kept going up and up and up. In 1921, when Listerine was promoted mainly to dentists, sales stood at $100k per year. In 1927, after ads warning of halitosis had blanketed the country, $4 million worth of Listerine was sold. That’s equivalent to about $62 million in today’s money.
So my point for you is:
Much good advertising works like this.
It’s not enough to only speak to the very few who are aware of their problem and looking for a solution.
Entire vast, untapped markets are out there, full of potential prospects… people who aren’t aware of the problem, or what that problem really means for them.
Speaking of which:
Are you plagued by uncertainty and doubt? It might be because of work trouble. Specifically, a lack of new marketing and copywriting ideas you can implement every day. Clients and customers prefer marketers with new ideas… bores not wanted. In case you’d like a fix for that serious problem, here’s where to go.