I watched Stephen King’s movie “It” several times a child.
I also watched the new version that came out recently.
The original version was creepier…and the most disturbing part was the fact that the adults couldn’t see the blood that was right in front of them. The kids could see it, but the adults couldn’t.
The adults were blind. I never understood this as a child.
Where they willfully ignoring the ugly truths (while being in denial)? Or was it that their eyes literally could not see what was in front of them?
Obviously, I could relate strongly to the kids. They knew the monster was real. It was killing innocent children in the town of Derry, Maine. Meanwhile, the adults looked the other way.
I can’t help but compare that to the “monster” of marketing, and how so much destruction takes place, courtesy of seriously backwards marketing messages. Nobody but a few can see this.
The “It” movie really shaped me as a child. Growing up, I could always see what the adults couldn’t see.
i could discern unhealthy behaviors a mile away. Nobody seemed to care about how disturbing it was, except me.
I was deeply disturbed by so many things I witnessed as a child, as a teenager, and later as adult. What. The. Hell. Is. Wrong. With. People? I wondered.
Eventually, just like the kids in “It,” I started feeling like I was the crazy one. But then I realized…
Being able to see what others can’t (or won’t see) doesn’t make you crazy – it makes you perceptive.
Watching Stephen King’s movie created the perfect training ground for me to eventually become an Anti-Marketer.
Today I can see all the ways that people are being unhealthy towards each other, and towards themselves. I can see all the unhealthy behaviors companies are engaging in towards consumers. I can see all the unhealthy products and how they’ve ravaged people’s health…and how consumers really don’t care.
It’s infuriating, baffling, and bizarre all at the same time.
Some would find this “clear vision” a burden. And it has been, for the longest time.
But it is also a gift. It is where my work is.
No other copywriter on the planet has my unique perception, and no one ever will.
My ability to see what others can’t see gives me an uncanny ability to slay monsters…by not being afraid of them. (This is different from apathy — where you refuse to see that monster even exists.)
The monster always comes back, in cycles, to prey on a fresh round of unsuspecting humans. That seems to be part of the human condition
When you call out the ugly truths — the unhealthy behaviors — those who are in denial will call you crazy. That is their primary defense mechanism that allows them to stay blind.
But with Anti-Marketing, you can permanently open people’s eyes so that they cannot go back to being blind.
Michelle Lopez Boggs is a copywriter, copywriting mentor, and author of "The Anti-Marketing Manifesto: How to Sell Without Being a Sellout." She's helped her clients sell millions of dollars' worth of products and services online by using the MEI(S) principle — motivate, educate, and inspire, and sell. 