Todd's Mischief Blog

As a marketing professional, one thing that has bothered me is how absolutely abysmal messaging has been in relation to the COVID response at all levels. The White House, I understand. The concerted effort to undermine everything the current administration says—by the press and by professional bureaucrats—has been a constant since the moment this president took office. But consider this. The first and hardest hit place in the US was New York City, home of Madison Avenue. The best, most talented and well resourced persuaders on the planet are in  I mean, come on! The whole nation is convulsing over mask mandates and yet the glossy PSAs declaring " Wearing is Caring " or some such pithy slogan are nowhere to be seen. What I'm saying is, the buy-in approach—the carrot as opposed to the stick—was discarded at the outset. I see no evidence it was ever really tried. WHY? The charitable side of me says the players involved didn't think of it. The uncharitable side says they ...

(Hint: Not the way anyone's been doing it)  Whether you approve of wearing a mask to prevent the spread of COVID-19 or oppose it, there is no disputing that mask-wearing has been poorly promoted. From mixed messages to outright intimidation, it could've gone better. It didn't have to be this way, but it looks like we’re stuck with it, because a better approach wasn’t taken from the beginning. Off the top of my head, I count 3 crucial missteps with regards to encouraging mask wearing. 1. Fauci's flip-flop. The potential for consensus on mask wearing was mostly destroyed by the nation's preeminent physician himself when he initially came out against the wearing masks. Fauci continues to undermine hope for consensus favorable to masking by asserting he was right to discourage masking early on. 2. Negative incentives. Appeals to volunteerism (do your part) encourage participation whereas mandates (do or else) encourage resistance. In my opinion, the worst way to promote...

Good convo in the DMs. Want to preserve the highlights. (My fellow conversant wishes to remain anon.) (ongoing, check back for updates) There is a lot of psychology behind masks, much of which hasn’t been thought through. The people in charge do not know what they are playing with. Getting people to wear masks is an easy psychological trick. We inherently crave security/safety. As long as we can obsess over the Masks, we feel a certain amount of control over this coronavirus, even though it is largely out of our control. However, there are side effects: (1) Masks disassociate people from themselves . This is ancient knowledge. Mask wearing as a part of ritual goes as far back as recorded history. The mask wearer put one on in order to become the thing represented by the mask. We still have an annual mask ritual today, Halloween. And we still wear masks for the same reason: To Become Someone Else. This isn't exactly something we have a choice in. Though I think ancients were more so...