Our desire to help children is genetically inbred; we are hard-wired to care about kids. The impulse is so strong that it even triggers concern far beyond what's rational. I was just watching a news report showing well-intended parents freaking out about the welfare of their child at school. By any reasonable measure, that child is quite safe, thank you.
Going to school today is probably as safe as it was a week ago, or a month ago, or six months ago. But try telling that to the parent! Pity the school administrator or principal who -- in the midst of the media frenzy about swine flu -- is not spending hours implementing precautionary plans for what is arguably not a very real threat in most places. This distracts attention away from teaching and learning, of course. Or, for that matter, making the school site safe from more present and real dangers. But those school officials have no choice for the moment but to drop everything and respond to parents' concern.
That's what got me to thinking about this: the power of kids as a motivator of behavior.
You're a Dad (or Mom). Your child is in imminent peril a few yards away. Would you run to help them? Of course.
Slightly different scenario. Now, in order to get to the child, you have to walk across a 12-inch wide piece of lumber board that straddles the gap. If you slip, you'll fall into a pool of water. Would you run to save the child? Of course.
Final scenario. Your child still needs saving. But now, in order to get to the child, you have to get across a tightrope, and you're 100 feet above the ground. Would you tip-toe across the rope to save your child? Still no hesitation. Yes.
People will do anything for kids. This motivator to action is more powerful than appealing to service of God, love of country, or even self-interest.
That's why so many direct response packages use child images. Given the power of this motivator, you've got to wonder why they aren't even more effective than they already are.
If your cause is in any way kids-related, it's up to you to tell your story so effectively that the reader or listener is impelled to "run across the tightrope" to rescue the child. If the reader or listener isn't motivated to do that, that's not their fault. It simply means you haven't told the story right. I don't mean you should bend it out of shape so as to whip up the type of hysteria we're seeing around swine flu. But take another crack at it. Tell your story better.
Going to school today is probably as safe as it was a week ago, or a month ago, or six months ago. But try telling that to the parent! Pity the school administrator or principal who -- in the midst of the media frenzy about swine flu -- is not spending hours implementing precautionary plans for what is arguably not a very real threat in most places. This distracts attention away from teaching and learning, of course. Or, for that matter, making the school site safe from more present and real dangers. But those school officials have no choice for the moment but to drop everything and respond to parents' concern.
That's what got me to thinking about this: the power of kids as a motivator of behavior.
You're a Dad (or Mom). Your child is in imminent peril a few yards away. Would you run to help them? Of course.
Slightly different scenario. Now, in order to get to the child, you have to walk across a 12-inch wide piece of lumber board that straddles the gap. If you slip, you'll fall into a pool of water. Would you run to save the child? Of course.
Final scenario. Your child still needs saving. But now, in order to get to the child, you have to get across a tightrope, and you're 100 feet above the ground. Would you tip-toe across the rope to save your child? Still no hesitation. Yes.
People will do anything for kids. This motivator to action is more powerful than appealing to service of God, love of country, or even self-interest.
That's why so many direct response packages use child images. Given the power of this motivator, you've got to wonder why they aren't even more effective than they already are.
If your cause is in any way kids-related, it's up to you to tell your story so effectively that the reader or listener is impelled to "run across the tightrope" to rescue the child. If the reader or listener isn't motivated to do that, that's not their fault. It simply means you haven't told the story right. I don't mean you should bend it out of shape so as to whip up the type of hysteria we're seeing around swine flu. But take another crack at it. Tell your story better.
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