There’s a conversation I’ve had a lot over the past decade, but in recent days, it feels like I have it more frequently, if not constantly.
It goes like this.
I’m talking to someone who has got something they want to communicate with the public about — a cause, an independent film release, a piece of news — and as we get into a discussion of how to get the message out, they very quickly get mired in hopelessness and the impossibility of communicating anything in this environment.
Getting a message out has never been easy or simple, but there were paths and strategies. You could always… throw an event!
But lately, as attention spans shrink to the subatomic level, following the usual strategies and paths feels futile. The idea of conveying and implanting a message — a narrative — into human consciousness feels absolutely perverse to even try. It’s like trying to train a dolphin to appreciate quinoa.
It’s time, however, to recalibrate the narrative about our attention spans and stop trying to squeeze square pegs into non-existent holes. If we’re going to communicate with the world, we’ve got to meet the human brain where it lives, not try to replicate the 1980s, when understanding developed after watching the CBS Evening News and reading Time magazine. Too much of Hollywood’s cultural messaging seems tailored to a world that doesn’t exist anymore.
We in the culture business must acknowledge that humanity’s capacity to join our parade has been fundamentally altered, and if we want to speak to them, bring them on board and build interest in products, we have to take the world as it is.
Here then are 26 principles for a new paradigm of marketing:
The Goldfish Rules
There is no higher score than one. Don’t make your message complex in search of a higher score.
Yesterday didn’t exist. Everything, every attempt to message, is about getting to one on that day. Nothing gets you a two. One is the top score, and tomorrow you start over.
A singular message. Every communication should contain exactly one message.
I repeat: There is only one point. Since the maximum score you can receive is one, every message should aim for one point. You cannot score two points for one message. Two points are two different messages.
Two messages are zero messages. If you pack too many messages into one, nothing comes through, and your score for today is zero.
Ban “and.” If a message has the word “and” in it, or a comma, it’s too many messages. And your score is zero.
Narratives don’t happen. There is no narrative that builds on itself or a story that unfolds. Every day, the slate is clean.
Everyone knows everything all the time. All messages swirl around forever, like a drain that never empties. Everything is always with us.
You will fail. The world hands out a limited number of ones every day. Over 99 percent of messages earn zero.
You’re up against forever. Getting a one means breaking through almost everything else. By which I mean almost everything said in history.
You’re up against AI. In addition to social media, AI will generate an infinite number of polished, well-crafted messages.
AI = fine = zero. Filler text will never be the thing that breaks through the attention clutter.
All that glitters is bold. The one thing you can never be is boring or bland. A universe of shiny AI filler text requires aggressiveness to break out and earn a one for today.
Safe is for losers. Safe and perfect = zero points.
Make friends with controversy. Lean into mistakes that stand out over the perfectly buffed AI effuluvium.
Be messy. In the kingdom of the shiny, the unpolished and rough are what will stand out.
The points don’t add up. There are no cumulative points. Whatever you get today, tomorrow you reset at zero.
The golden ring. You win by hammering the ones enough so that it builds up some sort of familiarity and even the golden ring — recognition.
How it gets (slightly) easier. When it becomes familiar —when people have seen the message so many times that they recognize it (I’ve seen that before…) — getting to one on that day becomes slightly easier. (Maybe 20 percent easier.)
Brands might help, a little. This is the advantage of pre-aware titles; they get to one 20 percent easier.
When you’re beyond the ones, part 1. There are two ways to avoid earning one every day. The first: Be part of some giant, permanent awareness event — i.e., the Super Bowl, Stranger Things’ final season, the presidential election in its final week, the Taylor Swift tour in its last month.
When you’re beyond the ones, part 2. Dump vast sums of money to bulldoze through the miasma.
Money doesn’t always work. That second path becomes more expensive and less guaranteed with every passing day.
The Goldfish Rule: We don’t have a short attention span; we have no attention span. You don’t have three seconds to get your message across. You have zero seconds. You must convey what you have to convey in a flash of lightning.
Memory doesn’t exist. Unless you are in the public’s face at a specific moment, you don’t exist, and you have never existed.
The new point system. There are two scores for messaging: zero and one. If the messaging is ineffective, you get zero. If it is effective, you receive one.
This is obviously hyperbolic. A bit, but not much; it describes the situation today much better than the prevailing notion of the collective culture as a blank space on which we can slowly doodle immense palaces that will take shape and grow in the human consciousness.
Our minds and attention spans are under assault, and with AI, that assault will only increase and become more exact. Breaking through that pea-soup haze is not about cajoling and enticing — it’s about barreling over all that stands before you.
This applies to movie releases, political messaging, public debate and fragrance launches.
There’s a 27th principle I’d be remiss to leave off: Act as if the Goldfish Rules are true, and you will go far (as long as you can remember them in five seconds…).
The world will not slow down for you. Dive in with boldness.
Rushfield Lunch: Penny Lane
Tomorrow on Rushfield Lunch: Tune in at 11 a.m. PT for my conversation with the great documentary filmmaker Penny Lane. She has delved into some of the most unlikely corners of our cultural experience — from the origins of the Satanic Temple (Hail Satan?) to the music of Kenny G (Listening to Kenny G) — and her newsletter, Penny Lane Is My Real Name, is a great source for aspiring filmmakers and beyond. Watch on Substack or live at The Ankler’s YouTube page.
