Sticky Notes - B👀BS.

Years ago, McDonald's was seriously considering scrapping their infamous Golden Arches logo. Naturally, they consulted Louis Cheskin, a man who, at the time, possessed the most brilliant mind in marketing.

Cheskin asked a bunch of McDonald's customers an array of questions surrounding the fast-food empire's logo. After gauging their reactions, he told McDonald's, with total confidence, that they should keep their logo on account that it looked like "Mother McDonald's Breasts".

McDonald's kept their golden arches and customers have been clutching their Big Macs, McNuggets and Oreo McFlurries ever since.

While this might sound like hogwash, Ray Croc –– the man responsible for scaling McDonald's from a town's burger stop to the largest fast food chain in the nation –– believed that brand loyalty could be established at the ripe age of "2".

While most kids stop breastfeeding sometime between the age of 6-12 months –– unless you're Robin Arryn from Game of Thrones ––  experts believe that kids can not only recognize a pair of breasts but a brand's logo long before they can recognize their own name.

That's scary shit. But, back to Louis Cheskin.

According to Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink, Cheskin believed that most of us don't make a distinction –– at least not on a conscious level –– between the packaging of a product and the product itself.

So, in other words, the product isn't just the product...

The product is the packaging and product.

While Cheskin has long been dead, the firm he left behind has found that 7-Up can taste a hell of a lot more "citrusy" by simply increasing the yellow in the packaging by 15%, that peaches taste better in a glass jar than a can and that folks are willing to pay five to ten cents more for chocolate chip ice cream if the packaging reads, "New! Bigger Chocolate Chips!"

But, why am I telling you all of this?

Because a lot of us assume that a product's packaging –– logos, design, aesthetic, copy, creative and the overall experience as a whole –– is to better help market the product.

But, in reality, it's to make the product itself better.

While in Japan, I had a traditional Japanese breakfast served in a bento box with eight or nine cubbies. As crazy as it may sound, the neatness and understated beauty of the Bento Box made everything the chef had prepared even more delicious. 

There is a reason when you go into Sean Brock's restaurant Audrey here in Nashville, Tennessee, everything comes out in an artful presentation that could be housed in a museum: it's because every great chef knows that we don't just eat with our mouths but our eyes.

I would call this dark magic "manipulation" if it is being used to sell a shitty product or achieve "brand loyalty" at the age of "2". But, if the packaging is being used to make a great product 25% better, I don't exactly know I would call it... but I also prefer Chick-fil-A.

By Cole Schafer

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Words and more specifically "copy" fall under "packaging".

I've been writing advertising against my will for the better part of six years and while I find myself hating it most of the time, I've gotten pretty damn good at it.

If you want to work with me directly, it will cost you $10k.

Not everyone has $10k just lying around to pay some stranger on the internet to pen down some pretty prose, so I created a course that costs one one hundredths of that.

How to write words that sell like a Florida Snow Cone Vendor on the hottest day of the year is a short, afternoon-sized copywriting course with an extraordinarily long title that will teach you everything I know in the way of selling goods and services with words.