“Why is the dog wagging its tail? Because the dog is smarter than his tail. If the tail was smarter, it would wag the dog.”
The manipulation of reality
We watched the 1997 classic “When the tail wags the dog”.
The story is brilliant. The US president is hit by a sex scandal just before the election. A political consultant/PR man (Robert De Niro) and a Hollywood producer (Dustin Hoffman) team up to make the world believe that America is at war with Albania.
Creating reality
The film shows exactly how powerful storytelling can be. The two main characters build a complete reality from scratch, using the tools of the film industry. Fake songs, staged rescue missions, and one of the most absurd yet brilliant scenes in film history: an Albanian girl squeezing a cat, fleeing the ‘war’ in a studio. 🤫 While the American people pray as one for the heroic soldiers and the little refugee, who cares that the President had a good time with an underage girl scout in the White House?
And this is the strongest message of the film: anything can be sold through the power of distraction and perception.
Cinema is the most serious lesson in the art of creating reality. Condensed into a single film, it illustrates the most basic strategies of manipulation, many of which are associated with Noam Chomsky:
1️⃣ The strategy of distraction: divert attention from the real problems.
2️⃣ A strategy of gradualism: take small steps to accept a big change.
3️⃣ The strategy of procrastination: present a painful decision in the future so that people will accept it.
4️⃣ Treat people like toddlers: create simple, emotional narratives that are easy to absorb.
5️⃣ Appeal to emotion rather than reason: don’t rely on logic, but on fear or redemption.
6️⃣ Keep people ignorant and mediocre: educate a passive mass who are addicted to pop culture.
7️⃣ People should be encouraged to accept their mediocrity: make them believe that stupidity is cool.
8️⃣ Make people think they are to blame for everything: lower their self-esteem so they feel guilty about the problems.
9️⃣ You need to know people better than they know themselves: use the data you collect about them to manipulate them.
Why it matters to us
Your product or service is much more than its features. It’s the story you build around it and the brand experience you deliver. The modern equivalents of the tricks in the film come to us every day in the age of social media and fake news. Reality is malleable, and the most powerful tool is a good story!
Have you seen this film? How did you like it?
