I have written this article to bring attention to WWE’s current marketing techniques to prevent children from harming themselves imitating Wrestling.
Throughout any WWE programming at the moment we are treated 3 or 4 times to the statement of “DO NOT try this at Home or at School"
This is something WWE is using more and more because in this PG rated era, they need to aim their product at children, but, how many of us actually take notice of this?
Back in the UK I am currently doing some studies through my current employer based on NLP. This stands for Neural Linguistic Programming. Without going into too much detail the basic principle of NLP is the different ways your brain accepts information consciously and unconsciously. When you receive instructions, you will act whether it asked in a positive or a negative manner. These positive and negatives ways change our responses and our way of thinking to certain situations.
Allow me to demonstrate. Imagine there is a child in a room with a big red button which says above it “DO NOT press this button”. When the child reads this warning, the mind will automatically provide them with a thought of what will happen when you push the button. Therefore the child will feel more like pressing it because he has been told not too. It’s a natural unconscious reaction.
If the child was in the room and there wasn’t a warning sign then the chances of him pressing the button would have been considerably lower because the notion hasn’t been brought into their mind.
Another perfect example would be this actual article itself. How many of you just clicked on this article because I told you not too?
So in the same vein, how many kids WILL try wrestling because they have been told not too?
I feel that WWE should look at how they market these safety messages as they are causing more harm than good. NLP is becoming a big part of organisations and governments structures thus effecting policies and procedures.
There are positive ways to tell someone the same message without using the negative words of DON’T DO THIS.
An example of something WWE could consider as a replacement is the main line of “We DO the Wrestling, YOU do the Watching!”
It’s not negative, it doesn’t talk down to the child and it’s easy to remember.
You can test this theory yourself if you have children or with other people you know. When you next want someone to do something for you try using the words “When”, “After” and “Before” in your instructions and you will notice a more positive response.
If you say to a child “Turn that TV off!” then chances are they will argue with you to keep it on. If you say something along the lines of “When this programmes finished you need to turn the TV off” you will receive a better response.
As always I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on this. You may feel that I’m talking rubbish or you may notice that it does change things. Feel free to email me on [email protected] and I shall try to respond to you ASAP.
Martyn.
P.S. if anyone from WWE is reading then yes, I would love to talk about a position in your marketing department lol
