The other day I was in Barnes and Noble, perusing the latest self-help titles. I’ll do this from time to time because:
- I’m a sucker for all-encompassing solutions to life’s quandaries.
- I always feel that self-help captures the zeitgeist of modern times.
- I’m a sensitive new age guy, alright?
At one particular table, I discovered a seemingly new trend: self-help books with littered curse words in the title.
Naughty words like ‘sh*t’ and ‘f*ck’ graced at least 8 different book covers. Gosh, gee whiz!
What’s going on here? It seems like ever since Mark Manson’s ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck’ hit the mainstream, that this trend has really caught on.
Perhaps each of the authors had the same idea randomly at the same time. Or – more likely – the publishers sniffed out a new trend.
Not since Chicken Soup for the Soul have I seen such an obvious shift in the way self-help seems to be changing.
But is all this potty language really necessary?
One of the things I learned a few years ago is that you have to speak in the voice of your prospect if you want them to pay attention.
If they have slang, lingo, or industry terms, make sure you use them in your writing, video, and ads. If you do, they will like you ‘get’ them and want to know more.
Maybe this cursing trend is the next evolution of that. After all, people like to swear in personal conversations. In music and movies, it’s also common. Inside fiction it’s normal. Why not on book covers?
Yeah, why the f*ck not?
Here’s my view: if you use curse words to get your point across it might cut through the noise of the more generic stuff you see out there. After all, ‘Get Your Sh*t Together’ works better than ‘Complete All Your Tasks’.
However, it also causes you to be pigeon-holed. It’s like making a meal spicy. You can’t unspice it. So if somebody gets tired of the heat, they have to leave the kitchen.
And perhaps thanks to the long-tail of the internet, maybe that’s ok.
Controversy gets attention. But content that is meant to create controversy seems to fall a little flat. It disappears after a while.
I am sure that some of these authors wanted to grow their reach using curse words, but then again, does the message of the books stand up without them?
The other day it was announced that Gary Vaynerchuck had created a second youtube channel called ‘Curse Free GaryVee’ purely because he was concerned his ‘Jersey potty mouth’ was stopping some viewers from gaining value:
“As time moved on and culture moved on, a bigger percentage of people became ok with some of the colorful language. However, a big percentage is not everyone. And more importantly, deploying empathy and caring about the audience is ultimately the only thing I truly believe in.”
For someone as self-aware as Gary to do this is a good indication that cursing in written, video and audio form can potentially diminish the effect.
As someone who writes for a living, it is always interesting seeing these emerging trends. Perhaps the curse word trend will continue, or maybe it will fade out.
But most important of
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