Stopping Power
Stopping Power is a great marketing phrase, and one that cuts beyond the advertising industry itself toward just about anything where you want to get other peoples attention.
A dumb gimmicky term it may be, but I have it in my head constantly, and was applying it in life long before I ever even heard of the phrase.
The famous self-immolation-as-protest performed by Vietnamese monk Thich Quang Duc in 1963 is in itself a form of stopping-power, as are generally any forms of protest. Even, one could argue, a silent protest or hunger strike.
Many years ago, I crossed the border from San Diego USA into Tijuana Mexico (I would later do it again, crossing from El Paso over to Juarez…. mind you this was in 2008 when the drug war was merely bad and not very bad).
As our travelling troupe from the hostel passed the Mexican border guard (no pat-down security, simply a cheerful US-coin donation at the booth :)), we walked through, from recollection, a brief concrete passageway of no-mans land and then into a throng of street hawkers. It felt like hundreds of them. All were yelling and advertising their wares. Someone yelled out they were selling a house or a horse or I don’t know what.
Taking it all in, I was suddenly stopped by one concerned young Mexican vendor as he pointed out to my feet.
“Hey watch your step man!”
Me, looking around: “huh? wha?”
“You almost walked over a good deal!”
A merry chuckle in jest at this mans valiant sales ploy, and off again I went, to enjoy the colourful sights of one of the world’s great basket-cases, to get some enchilladas and other feastings. No I didn’t buy anything from this man and in fact I didn’t even stop to see what he was spruiking, probably leathergoods or something. But the point was made and the life-lesson learned.
You gotta break out of the pack and, if it’s in a crowded-market of disinterested people, sometimes you basically have to jump right into their field of view if you can. It may be the only way (though stop short of physical contact, always a no-no in sales).
Basically, Imagine if you had to stop a wedding.
It’s fed-election season in Australia so all these clowns and jokers who try to rule our lives with a petty schoolyard bossiness are now going to try and be our best friend and compete for our vote, along with a bunch of other hopefuls, challengers, pretenders, and what-have-you.
The smart ones will employ…
STOPPING POWER!!!
…to claim attention, and no you don’t NEED money necessarily (though it always helps). You need imagination.
So endeth the lesson. If you want attention for something you have made or are trying to flog, try stopping power.
Thich Quang Duc was a Buddhist monk who, in 1963, set himself on fire (and burned to death), in protest against the treatment of Buddhist by the South Vietnamese Diem Government. JFK would later say “No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one” and the photographer Malcolm Browne would win World Press Photo Of The Year.
The footage led to increased pressure against the Dien regime, which eventually collapsed, with Diem and his brother Nhu being assassinated the next day.
Imitation protests were performed by other monks as well as by Vietnam War protesters in the US later on. Years earlier, a Buddhist monk in China had also self-immolated in protest against Maos anti-religious persecutions. Source wiki.