The Propaganda Playbook: Fear Machine (Only 28% of Americans Trust the News. Ebola and Hantavirus Headlines Prove Why) - #Marketing - Ep. 131

About this episode

Russell Brunson discusses how media uses fear to drive engagement and the parallels to marketing strategies.

In 2020, something got installed in your brain — a switch. And every time the media needs a click, they flip it, because they know it still works. This week it’s Ebola. Three weeks ago it was hantavirus. The CDC says the risk to Americans is extremely low. The WHO went on camera and said this is not the next Covid. But that’s not what the headlines say… because calm doesn’t get clicks. Fear does. In this episode I show you the machine behind the fear — the funnel, the business model, the exact script. I teach a framework called Hook, Story, Offer, and when I looked at how the media covers these virus stories, I realized they’re running the same three steps I teach marketers… except they’re not selling a product, they’re selling fear. Then I bring in two books — a 1962 warning from French philosopher Jacques Ellul, and my friend Ryan Holiday’s confessions of a media manipulator — to explain not just how they do it, but why. And as a dad, the part that keeps me up at night is who’s paying the price. Key Highlights: ◼️The “Fear Funnel” — how the media runs the same Hook, Story, Offer I teach, except the hook is a scary headline, the story buries the CDC’s “extremely low risk” at the…

People in this episode

Host: Russell Brunson

Topics covered

• media manipulation
• fear marketing
• public trust
• health communication
• propaganda

Keywords

• fear machine
• Ebola
• hantavirus
• media trust
• propaganda
• Hook Story Offer
• Jacques Ellul
• Ryan Holiday

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: CDC, WHO

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