Don't sell the product Sell the fear

A brand once invented a disease just to sell their product and it made them millions. In the 1920s, Listerine was a floor cleaner nobody wanted. So they got clever. They took bad breath, something everyone had and ignored, and gave it a scary name: Halitosis. Made you sound like a disease you should be ashamed of. Then they ran ads showing lonely people, no one would marry, all because of their breath. Panicked, and sales went from 100,000 to 4 million in six years. Once you see the trick, you see it everywhere. Look at anti-aging creams, they made you scared of looking your own age. Look at germ soaps, they turn your own home into a threat. Look at insurance, they sell you the disaster, then the peace. Because people don't buy when your solution looks good. They buy when their problem starts to scare them. Sell the fear, and the cure itself sells.