Dear Persuader,
In today’s blog post I have a fascinating case study to share with you about the persuasive power of enemies.
The Columbus Dispatch in Warsaw Ohio reported on a story so funny that I could barely contain myself as I read it.
I’ll present the gist of it here for you along with my analysis. There are profound lessons in persuasion to be learned here.
For the past four years churchgoers from a local church gather approximately 7 miles from the church near a strip club. They videotape customers coming in and out of the club and post them online. They use bullhorns and signs to try and dissuade customers from frequenting the strip club. And of course they invite everyone, including the dancers to “come to church”.
This last weekend the dancers decided to take the church up on their invitation. They showed up for church. Only thing is, they came wearing see-through shorts and sporting super soakers.
They sat on the front lawn of the church and grilled hamburgers, corn on the cob and in general had a good time. They waved at the passersby while waving their own signs.
Signs like: “Matthew 7:15: Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing.” And–“Revelations 22:11: He that is unjust, let him be unjust still.
If this isn’t funny enough, there’s more.
The strip club owner sued the church in federal court several years ago claiming a violation of his constitutional rights, but he lost. So now he feels turnabout is fair play. If they can come to his club, he can come to their church.
Several members of the church came and offered to pray for a couple of the dancers to which the dancers graciously accepted. One of the dancers said she was grateful for the prayers and went on to explain that after all the majority of the dancers were also religious.
One of the dancers, a 30-year-old married mother of six explained that she has worked there the last 10 years and does so to keep her home together and give her children what they need.
This story presents some powerful lessons in persuasion.
So tell me, who will win? The church or the strippers?
Here’s the answer… Neither One. However, both will probably help the other in powerful ways.
Do you believe the church will ever accept the strippers? The problem is, that they really can’t – even if they wanted to. Why? Because they’ve made the strippers the enemy… the devil incarnate.
The church, by creating this enemy and by publicly making a show of trying to shut them down has locked themselves into a position of having to defeat the strip club or accept defeat… something they can’t do.
Their choice of enemy has helped define who they are.
I asked the question above, ‘who will win?’ But a better question to ask would be, ‘who will benefit?’ And in this case, the very business that the church would like to run out, will probably grow in size and power because of the free publicity the church is ensuring they get.
The church may also grow in size due to the publicity. But probably not. The way in which they’ll benefit is having their membership grow even more committed to ousting this evil business.
We can only hope that the church will not cross the line and commit violence in the pursuit of their ideals.
This is a great case study in the use of enemies. Your use of persuasion can be made infinitely more powerful if you have an enemy. All companies and organizations can have enemies (real or imagined). However, your choice of enemy helps define you – so choose wisely.
If the church had done this type of analysis, do you think they would have chosen this particular enemy? All I can say is, they might have but they would have been much better off being a bit more general with this instead of so specific. In this case they might actually be helping the very group they wish to hurt.
Enemies can be clearly definable or can be ideas. For example, look at the “war on terror” or the “war on drugs”. In these instances the enemies are terror and drugs. These are both extremely intangible. These “wars” have done nothing but line the government’s pockets with money. Well that’s not true, they’ve given the drug cartels the capability of giant profits, thus ensuring that they continue.
These wars have also caused ongoing fear and unrest in the population at large. Are they worth it? Only you can decide.
So in your selection of an enemy, choose wisely. It’s best if your enemy actually stirs up the emotion in the group you want to persuade. But common sense dictates that you use discretion in your choice.
I hope this case study has been eye-opening. And it would be great if you shared with everyone your thoughts on the use of enemies.
And why not post other examples of organizations and enemies as they come to mind. It could be quite eye-opening.
I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
Kenrick
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11 Comments
Fascinating! The use of enemies is fascinating too. For many years the medical establishment united Americans with a named flu…like Hong Kong Flu or Asiatic Flu in order to sell vaccines and other products. Recently we had a more vague enemy called h1n1 and everyday we “Fight Cancer” vs “Embrace Health”. History also tells us about “McCarthyism” and the enemy called “The Communist”. Recent history calls it “The Terrorist” All vague terms that stir emotions and drive people to do wierd things.
Fascinating don’t ya think?
Live with Intention,
DrBillToth.com/blog
Yes, all good examples.
The WHO tells us that the H1N1 scare is over. Wonder what the next will be.
I just saw your post on the Warsaw strippers responding to the protests of a local church by protesting themselves–in bikinis, sitting outside of church service. Some support the strippers in their serving-them-their-own-medicine type of response, defending the women’s right to work and protest where they want. Others see this as highly inappropriate and totally unequal to the churchgoers who have been protesting the strip club for four years. I think you will find the following video interesting and relevant to this discussion:
http://blog.maxpersuasion.com/strippers-vs-church/
Thanks Katie. I enjoy Newsy and this is a good video of the situation.
[quote comment=""]Yes, all good examples.
The WHO tells us that the H1N1 scare is over. Wonder what the next will be. [/quote]
Kenrick;
I got a good laugh from this story, too. It reminds me of a book I read in college, Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky. He preached actions similiar to what the strippers did. One time in Chicago, he got the mayor to pay attention to his cause by threatening to tie up all of the bathrooms at O’Hare airport with his supporters. When the mayor realized how much embarrasement that would bring to the city of Chicago, he folded to Alinsky. One of Alinsky’s gratest acolytes currently resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Alinsky forced Eastman Kodak to hire more than some token blacks. Kodak’s achilles heel was their support for the local symphony. Alinsky’s group bought over 100 tickets for opening night, dressed 100 black men in black tie and feed them a several hour feast of Boston baked beans and Italian sausage. He reasoned that it was illegal to throw a stink bomb, but not illegal to pass gas. When his plan hit the local papers, Kodak annouced their new hiring program for blacks. Alinsky always personalized his enemies.
Those are great examples.
Great story! I’ll Tweet the link. In my study of persuasion, I’ve looked at Alinsky for many years. He was brilliant.
In one of my own successful campaigns, we used the enemy concept very effectively, but were careful not to personalize it. A developer wanted to trash our local mountain (an icon in our area) with an inappropriate housing development. We attacked the project but never the man, though we were very happy when the local paper interviewed him and he dug himself a nice hole, coming across as greedy and crass (and attracting a goodly amount of small donations to our group in the following week). Ten years later, he and I remain cordial, but his development was abandoned after 13 months of pressure from us.
I describe this in some detail as one of the case studies in my award-winning (and #1 Amazon category bestselling) eighth book, Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet (co-authored with Jay Conrad Levinson)–a book that looks at many angles of persuasion, all in a Green context.
Oh, and what’s the link to the video Katy talked about? I couldn’t spot it.
The differences between Alinsky (and his goals) and -say- the Baha’i International Community are starkly contrasted in the principle of the Oneness of Humankind, the central principle around which the teachings and the administration of the Glory of God revolve.
Humans exist. WE have the power to demonize them, OR we can accept them WHERE THEY ARE in their personal spiritual growth and ASSIST them in their transformation into a happier, more effective human BY THEIR OWN LIGHTS, in accordance with the Creative Word of God.
No enemies. “All leaves of ONE tree”
It plays right into how we live our lives – politics is like this. One shunts the other and then it all reverses, when if we came from a different perspective of motivation for the good of all, for sure we would see a difference. And if we further stopped this separation pattern that exists most would be well.
Thanks