One of the greatest examples of this advertising secret occurred a few years ago.
In the mid-1990s, an entrepreneur came up with a humorous product that he hoped would get him free publicity and build him a big income. His goal was to get booked on free radio interviews around the country, and sell his product from the interviews.
The product? "Wipe Out Clinton" Toilet Paper. His strategy was to get booked on the radio interviews and tell lots of jokes. He offered a free Bill Clinton/Gennifer Flowers comic book to anyone who bought 2 or more rolls of toilet paper.
The best result he got from one radio interview was 35 rolls sold, on a great afternoon station. On morning stations he’d sell at most 10 rolls. In some interviews, he wouldn't sell a single roll.
It wasn't the blockbuster he had hoped for.
So He Tried a Different Approach
No more jokes. Instead, he went on a moring drive-time radio show and described the toilet paper. Then he said he had received thousands of calls, emails & letters from people who thought it was disgraceful that he had put the President of the United States on toilet paper.
And he bragged that he didn’t care in the slightest what anyone thought!
Result?
A 5 minute call on a Detroit station turned into half an hour. Listeners jammed the phone lines, half praising him, half condemning him.
One listener said this toilet paper signaled the beginning of the end of American civilization. Another told the entrepreneur to put his mother and father on toilet paper.
He never got much response when he played the humor angle. But controversy - THAT was another story!
So how many rolls did he sell from that single short interview? Remember, no morning show ever sold more than 10 rolls.
But THIS interview blew away the previous results!
In this interview, he sold 200 rolls at $5 a roll! Plus, he got a bunch of back-end business: O.J. Simpson Trial toilet paper, business deals, wholesale opportunities, and so forth.
It's a great advertising lesson for network marketers: controversy sells.
Many advertisers worry about controversy. But if you're not getting the results you want, do a test. Run an ad that takes a very strong stand on some major network marketing issue. Tap into the passionate hearts out there. You may well get criticized like crazy ... but if you also do ten times the business, wouldn't a little criticism be worth it?
The controversial audiotape, "Dead Doctors Don't Lie" was the biggest blockbuster promotion in the history of network marketing. That's not a fluke.
Learn from these models. Inject controversy into your MLM product or service or opportunity presentation whenever possible. It may make an enormous difference for you.
