Please Don’t Lie to Us

Let’s make something clear.

Marketing is not a license to lie.

Just because you are marketing does not mean you can twist or misrepresent the truth. Marketers should tell the truth and tell it well.

Marketing is about presenting your message in the most positive way. But it does not mean that you can lie. You can describe the glass as half full instead of half empty – but not overflowing.

Marketing is about telling your real story. The more warts in your story the more believable it is.

Please don’t tell us that you are number one – if you are not.

Are you claiming to be:

The best!
Number one in the country!
The world’s greatest!

Who says so? Can you prove it?

Don’t say those things unless you can back it up. And be sure to back it up. If you were voted number one by the community paper then state that. Don’t claim to be the nation’s number one.

AVIS is number two and they try harder.

Don’t lie. It’s bad for you. It gives marketers a bad name. And your mother would not be proud.


George Torok

Marketing Expert & Author

Secrets of Power Marketing

The Nerve of Some People

My dad has an expression that he says when ever he learns of some bold and obnoxious action by someone.

"The nerve of some people"

That was what I was thinking when I read this email from someone asking for my help.

What would you have said?

I cut and pasted it so the spelling errors are those of the writer. I also reduced the name to initials only.

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Dear Mr, George Torok,

Nice meeting you. Am a new subscriber to your resourceful site, and I have gotten so much helpful information from it.

Am a student , and i need your help. Please help me with a write up on this question; " Is Marketing an art or a science? Explain."Please help me with 10 - 12 pages of this, or as much as you can.

I will be waiting to hear from you soon.Once again, thanks for the helpful information in your wonderful site. I have lean a lot on marketing from it.

yours sincerely

C M
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Here is my reply


You must be kidding.

If you are a student then you know that for me to write an article for you would be cheating.

If you are a student then I am not happy about you reading my material with the approach you have taken. I wonder if you will properly credit your sources.

I would prefer if you "unsubscribe" from my site.

If you are a student then you would know that the role of a student is to learn how to learn and how to think.

If you are not a student then I am happy to quote you my fee for an article of this nature would cost around $10,000.
Payable in full in advance.

If this was a joke - ha ha.

George