Mystery car crash gossip

*RING … RING … RING!*

I’m out for a walk with Aggie this morning when I get a call from my wife.

“Hey, wanna hear the hot goss on that car crash?”

She’s referring to the accident that took place below our apartment in the middle of the night.

(At the time I write this, the vehicle is still sitting there, smashed against another car, owner nowhere to be found.)

“OF COURSE!” I respond … because who doesn’t love some hot goss? Especially for something that happened right outside your window.

“Okay,” she starts. “Word on the street is that the person who owns that crashed car was parked across the street last night … and I heard that they said the car was hit … then pushed all the way across the road and into the other car.”

My response was simple: “Bullshit.”

See, when I first woke up this morning I saw the car … and the damage.

To me, it looked like someone had one (or five) too many drinks, smacked a few cars on the way home, parked on the curb with brute force, tried to change their flat tire with the spare, then fled the scene.

Thing is … for the purpose of this email, it doesn’t really matter if what the person may have said about their car getting hit is true or not.

Because for us, the whole thing highlights a simple fact of human psychology.

People love mystery, gossip, and secrets.

From the moment I woke up and saw the accident, I was trying to put the pieces together.

As was my wife.

As were all the employees at the cafe below our apartment.

We all had our theories.

We all shared them.

And still, hours later, nobody knows the truth. And it’s likely that nobody ever will.

What’s crazy to me though is how much chatter this small incident generated in my community.

And, in the right markets, you can use this idea of secrets and mystery for yourself too.

This is something I learned from copywriter John Bejakovic. People can’t help but respond to secrets and gossip. We’re hardwired for it.

But I also know that it works. One of my most successful advertorial headlines in the last two months uses a “secrets” angle, and has generated well over its ROAS goal.

Worth a test. Its efficacy will be a mystery to you until you try it yourself.

For other ideas worth testing, sign up for my daily emails here.

David Patrick