The other day I was at a friend’s house and we were looking at some funny YouTube videos and whatnot. Then he put on a truly awful rap video. I can’t even recall what it was now, just completely uninspired and unoriginal–the kind of music that doesn’t advance the art at all.

I was sitting there wondering why exactly we were watching this. Why are people do fascinated with the awful? It’s the same phenomenon as rubber necking on the road. Everyone wants to see the train wreck. We can’t help ourselves. It’s a combination of fascination with the success and popularity of this thing, which speaks to other people’s poor taste or susceptibility to marketing, and a sense of relief and renewed appreciation for life that we were not the ones in that wreck or music video. Those who realize how easy it is for anyone to find themselves in an auto accident or rap video appreciate the favorable end of a close call.

This kind of intimate publicity is what word of mouth is all about. In this case, it wasn’t effective since I don’t remember what it was. But here I am talking about it. And there we were watching it. And not just the beginning for a taste. We watched the whole thing.

It harkens to the advice, “Be exceptional,” which finds its way into many marketing manuals. This is the way to get noticed, even if it’s only through being exceptionally bad.

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Andy Swindler Categories: General, Marketing, Social Media, Web