Half-truth or Half-lie ?

In one of my conference presentations, I deliberated on some success and failure stories in Social Media campaigns. Later I was suggested by other respected faculty members to analyse what makes a campaign a success or a failure. Can we measure the right proportion of ingredients to make a successful social media campaign? That sounded interesting to the point of finding the recipe of elixir. Had that been known, perhaps every company would put in the right ingredients and make a block-buster of their recipe!

Unfortunately, that is not the case. It’s very difficult to predict how people will behave in different situations, that too when the companies are talking to the mass. Still, I won’t deny that researches have been done in this field. The most noteworthy insight perhaps comes from Mark Hughes, as he deals with buzz marketing. He classified six topics which are quite effective at getting people talking:

• Taboo (controversial)
• The Unusual (unique)
• The Remarkable
• The Outrageous
• The Hilarious
• Secrets (kept and revealed)

It’s better if more than one ingredient can be mixed in right proportions. Last week one such advertisement came up, which inspired me to write this post.

A three-and-a-half minute video featuring ten pair of strangers kissing each other for the first time became overnight sensation on YouTube last week, garnering more than 24 million views in the first two days and more than 65 million views in ten days. When I first read about it in an article, the video was touted to be a social science experiment to understand how people behave at the beginning of a relation. The very next day, it was revealed that the video was made on a paltry budget of US $1300 to showcase the fall collection a clothing company- “Wren”- for Style.com’s Video Fashion Week. Although it mentioned at the beginning “Wren Presents” and credited “Wren” at the end too, the business of Wren was never mentioned in the video. So, when the next day the truth was revealed, it caused a heart-break among many and the internet was flooded with such emotion. It’s learnt that the participants were actually unknown to each other, although all were friends of Wren founder Melissa Coker. Use of half-truth in this campaign seemed amazing, as consumers derived the excitement in right proportions, while the brand also got its more than fair share of popularity.

In their attempt to gain attention of customers, brands often indulge in this kind of partial truths or lies, depending on how one looks at it. But even if you know the recipe, can you always make the perfect dish? Similarly brands fail sometimes, pathetically.

In September 2006, a blog called “Wal-Marting across America” was created featuring the musings of a couple known only as Jim and Laura as they drove cross-country in an RV. It included regular interviews with Wal-Mart workers, who were dependably happy about the company and their working. Surprising to the people in the blogosphere, these blog writers did not find any disgruntled employees of Walmart. As people started to dig deep into the identity of this couple, Edelman, the PR agency of Walmart, had to disclose that the couple were actually paid for their trips by Walmart and that they were relatives of an Edelman employee. An attempt to create a marketing buzz thus failed miserably, leaving behind bad memories in the mind of the consumers. Edelman probably picked up "Secret" as the main ingredient in this campaign, by sharing with people the lives of the employees of Walmart, but it bombed! I feel that the employees who were interviewed were not aware of the marketing tactics. But because of suppression of the vital part of the truth (not revealing the identity of the bloggers and probably hiding dissatisfied employees) people perceived more lies, than truth, in it.

This leads me to ponder what is better- a half truth or a half-lie. First I should differentiate between these two. Almost all of us have been exposed to the philosophical dilemma of a glass half empty or half full. It’s all about our perception- how we look at things in life. When I talk about half-truth, I am actually looking at one situation where one is expected to tell the truth, but for some reason only the half is revealed. On the other hand, a half-lie is one where lies are expected, but some bit of truth is given to it.

One “half-truth” in the entire life resulted in a visit to the hell for the Dharmaputra Yudhishthira and his chariot which would not touch the ground earlier, also came down to the level of earth! This utterance of lie was inevitable for him in order to get the invincible Dronacharya killed in the hands of Dhristadyumna, so that the holy war could be won by the virtuous Pandavas.

On the other hand, I have a fellow researcher who, although a very gentleman, proudly announces to his closer ones not to trust him! Almost everybody knows that he tells half-lies, and sometimes plain lies, without any intention to do harm to anybody. So, what is the problem with that?

I feel the problem is that when people decode your statements as half-truths, they may be heart-broken. But when they start to perceive your statements as half-lies, you have lost your credibility. Half-lies may be good for a comedy show, but in real life they can ruin one’s relations.

Same logic applies to brands. If you want to create a buzz in the social media world by spinning stories around partial truths or falsehoods, it’s always better to clarify yourself at the earliest, before anybody raises doubt regarding the character of your brand. A half-truth is better than a half-lie!

[This post was originally made in my WordPress blog on 21 Mar 2014. You can see the same here.]