More on "Hooks"

John Mcreery (jlm@TWICS.COM)
Sat, 15 Oct 1994 07:52:01 JST

Reply to Ian Ritchie who writes:

""Science of the Concrete" - why, we might get confused with
structural engineers! How about "Beyond the Veils of Illusion," or
"A Clearer Perception," or "when we step in the cowpies, we know them
for what they are." Or, following the thread on Taussig, perhaps we
could try "Touching the Other!"

And to Bonnie Blackwell, who writes:

"very nice. but rather long to be a hook, more like the copy to flesh out
the ad."

First, to Bonnie:

*Science of the Concrete* is the "hook." As you correctly perceive, the
rest of my remark is the copy that follows the headline.

To both:

The phrase "Science of the Concrete" is, of course, stolen from Levi-Strauss.
The fact that it has stuck with me through all the years since I read _The
Savage Mind_ implies to me that it has good, hookish qualities. Partly
this is because it jolts a mind used to equating science with abstraction.
In this particular instance, it also speaks to the business person who while
perhaps a bit impressed by "science" also considers him- or herself to be
tough-minded, having to deal with practical situations, and having no time
for airy-fairy theory. It points to potentially useful experience, which
speaking from the employer/client side of the fence tends to be what we are
looking for....

Ian's first two suggestions-- "Beyond the Veils of Illusion," or
"A Clearer Perception" are (1) too cliched to be memorable and (2) fail
to point to anything specific to anthropology that differentiates our
product. As for ""when we step in the cowpies, we know them
for what they are." We just wind up looking shitty <g>.

John McCreery (JLM@TWICS.COM)