One of the great men of advertising was the late Bruce Barton. If you donât know who Bruce Barton is, heâs one of the Bâs in the world-renown BBDO ad agency. Unfortunately, hardly anyone knows about him today - except a gaggle of social activists calling him racist or whatever for a fundraising letter (that got 100% response, I will add) that he once wrote. But, in the early to mid 1900âs, he was a household name. Back then, the joke was you couldnât go anywhere or talk to anyone without hearing his name pop up. In the advertising world he was a contemporary of John Caples. Politically, he was an arch enemy of FDR, and they openly battled each other. He also advised presidents, ran for Congress, and consulted Wall Street power players. The reason I bring him up: One of the things that made Bruce so good at advertising and landing (and keeping) big accounts was his natural instinct for the consequences of not advertising yourself all the time. But not just for the obvious reasons of growing a business. For Bruce Barton it went beyond that: He understood the trolls of his day â including how vulnerable a company was that didnât advertise because of trolls⦠and how entire businesses could be potentially destroyed by a lying, grunting troll. For example: In his book âThe 7 Lost Secrets Of Successâ Joe Vitaly documents how Bruce Barton persuaded US Steel to keep their account with BBDO way back in the 1930s: === âYou are going to have national advertising whether you want it or not,â declared Bruce Barton. US Steel had decided to stop their national advertising, and Barton went to Pittsburgh to confront the managers. He told them they could cancel their advertising if they wanted, but that a different kind of advertising would continue. . . âIt is the advertising given you by politicians with axes to grind, by newspapers that hope to build circulation by distorting your ads, by all other operators in the field of public opinion, some unfriendly and some merely misinformed.â Then Barton hit them with a thunder bolt. âCan you afford to take the risk of having all your advertising emanate from sources beyond your control?â === The result? US Steel renewed their advertising. They had no choice. Otherwise the trolls of that time would have done their âadvertisingâ for them. And so it is for your business today. Frankly, Iâd argue it is a thousand times worse today â with all the consequence-free social media mud-slinging, echo chamber posturing, fake news, and other assorted ways you can be anonymously attacked, slandered, and smeared by an envious, self-loathing troll with just a few angry, cheetos dust-covered fingered keystrokes or taps on a phone. I donât care if you do everything âright.â Or if you are the nicest guy or gal in the world. Or even if you have no enemies (that you know of). Whoever you are, whatever you sell, no matter what market you are in⦠I can almost guarantee it will happen to you sooner or later. It happens all the time to good businesses who have done nothing wrong and who even actively stay out of trouble or under the radar. If you have anything to say worth hearing, someone, somewhere will almost certainly take a shot at you. Sometimes it is be lame snarky insults or passive aggressive sniping. Sometimes it is be a vicious personal attack. And sometimes, it is a coordinated campaign to bury your business, brand, and reputation. Why would someone do this? Who knows? The troll is not logical and operates in the unpredictable and volatile realms of emotion-driven envy, jealousy, and self-loathing. All it takes is an email, social media post, something you say/teach/advocate they disagree with, or even merely a testimonial on your website from someone they have deemed the Enemy (for political, religious, ideological, or any other reason â again, itâs all emotional and irrational for the troll). And thatâs why, if you have any kind of significance in your market, any visibility in your industry, any presence online or offline⦠I can all but guarantee you will be attacked by a troll in some way, shape, or form at some point. Thatâs the bad news. The good news? If you know just a few of the principles I teach inside my âCopy Trollâ book, you can not only potentially profit like crazy from trolls â big, small, malicious, or harmless â in your business, but you may very well profit so easily from them you might be tempted to seek them out and pick fights with them. I donât recommend doing that, by the way. It can horribly backfire on you, for reasons I go into in the book. But that is how predictably profitable trolls can sometimes be. To get âCopy Trollâ at a fat discount, go to this link: [httpâ¶//www.EmailPlayers.com/troll]( Use coupon code: PRONOUNS to get the discount. And make sure you see the price change before entering any credit card info. The deadline is tonight (Sunday 3/17) at midnight EDT. Ben Settle This email was sent by Ben Settle as owner of Settle, LLC. Copyright © 2024 Settle, LLC. All Rights Reserved. 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