I just finished reading Sally Hogshead’s Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation. It’s a *ahem* fascinating exploration of the subtle and not-so-subtle psychological influences—lust, mystique, alarm, prestige, power, vice, and trust—that successful marketers use to capture your attention and even manipulate your behavior. If you are at all interested in how to pique your audience’s interest, this is a must-read. There’s even a workshop-in-a-chapter section for the DIYers in the crowd.

As a personal experiment, I set out to see what examples I could find in the retail world. Before I could even get to the Jägermeister shelf at the liquor store (you really need to read the book), I came across this little gem at the neighborhood grocery store:

It’s a hair gel from the international aisle called Moco de Gorila (translation: Gorilla Snot). And, yes, on the snot bead-shaped bottle is a picture of a gorilla with a runny nose.  It’s available in three styles so you can look like a punk, rocker, or a gallant (aka playah), although I suspect there’s not much difference in the styles other than product labeling.

Gross, right?  I can hardly imagine a better example of the vice trigger.  What member of the cool kids club wouldn’t want to use it just to spite their parents?

Nothing new at work here. Other marketing campaigns have successfully used a gross extreme to fascinate… Garbage Pail Kids, South Park, and the tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek marketing scheme I helped develop for Dirty Sanchez Tacos.

The vice trigger doesn’t work for everyone; the gross element works for fewer still. But when it works, it fascinates! What triggers are you using to fascinate your audience?

According to a survey recently released by the National Endowment for the Arts, the number of US adults attending an arts performance dropped to nearly 35% in 2008 from 40% in 1982, 1992, and 2002.  At the same time, more Americans viewed or listened to broadcasts and recordings of arts events than attended them live (live theater being the sole exception).  Needless to say, the dynamics and demographics of arts audiences are in flux.  Movie actress Scarlett Johansson is set to star in an upcoming Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge and producers plan to offer discounted balcony seats to Ms. Johansson’s younger fans attracted to the show via their Facebook and Twitter outreach pages.

THE BOTTOM LINE – How are you addressing the changes in your audience?

In a recent edition of the Wall Street Journal two unrelated articles point to the struggles artists face as they straddle the two extremes of pure creativity and pure marketability. The first article notes that ABC Network is taking great pains to test audience reactions prior to giving a style makeover to the title character of its hour-long comedy Ugly Betty.  Notwithstanding claims of following their creative instincts, producers are soliciting a lot of input from viewers on if and how soon Betty should have her braces removed.  On the other end of the spectrum, the second article discusses how Manhattan’s New Museum lowered its building ceiling by two feet—at considerable expense—to accommodate the request of in-demand sculptor Urs Fischer.  Fretting over Betty’s braces seems like overkill, but remember the audience backlash when Felicity’s title character cut her hair?  Similarly, can a business really justify the cost of lowering a perfectly good ceiling just because the artist thinks it makes his art look more impressive?  It can… as long as it sells.

BOTTOM LINE – How do you find balance between artistic intention and audience reaction?