Good Advertising Can’t Sell A Bad Product?

That’s what you think.

Proof #1: Political Advertising regularly sells bad products.

Proof #2: Lots of people bought Pintos.

Proof #3: Cigarettes. The Ultimate Bad Product.

Advertising sells bad products all the time.

Lincoln said you can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time—but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.

But you don’t need to fool all of the people all of the time, just some of them long enough to win an election or sell a bad product.

It’s a myth that you can’t sell a bad product, that there is some kind of relationship between success and quality. There isn’t. If your product isn’t selling it’s because the advertising is failing.

Conversely, if your product is selling, don’t pat yourself on the back, pat your advertising team on the back.