In one old fairy tale, after seeing a man selling his cow which has stopped producing milk, a resourceful character decides to help him – and so successfully praises the animal in front of all potential buyers so much the owner himself eventually changes his mind and decides to keep such a wonderful cow for himself.
However, this fairy tale does not change the fact that the cow still did not give milk, despite the excellent advertising that was given to it. If such a story took place today, the seller could well have been sued for unfair advertising. Fortunately, there is an opportunity to capture the attention of readers in very different ways…
A few weeks ago, Niagara SPCA, an animal shelter in Niagara Falls, published a post about one of the animals at the shelter, a young French bulldog named Ralphie. Even aside from the fact that Ralphie looks incredibly adorable on his own, the post went viral, with 3.6K reactions, 1.5K comments and over 1.7K shares as of today. And that’s why…
The employees of Niagara Falls animal shelter recently published a post about a French bulldog named Ralphie
Image credits: Niagara SPCA
On the official page of Niagara SPCA, it is written that the major mission of the shelter is to prevent cruelty to all animals and educate the public on humane treatment of animals. Of course, however, in addition to the main mission, the shelter staff still have an incredible talent for writing promotional posts. And the story of Ralphie is the best proof of that.
Image credits: Niagara SPCA
However, Ralphie has a terrible temper, so the staff decided not to sugarcoat his shortcomings
So, the shelter staff admit that, despite his wonderful appearance, Ralphie, unfortunately, is not very popular among possible new owners, and it’s all because of his completely unbearable temper. However, the authors of the post decided not to sugarcoat this Frenchie’s shortcomings, but to honestly tell everything as it is.
Image credits: Niagara SPCA
In general, in his short life, Ralphie has already managed to visit two families. His first owners took him to board and train, but the training did not give any result – simply because the doggo was sure that he was the boss and not anyone else. From the new family, Ralphie was also returned to the shelter after some time, because he annoyed their older dog. And now the bulldog has again blessed the staff of the shelter with his regal attention.
Image credits: Niagara SPCA
Ralphie honestly thinks that the whole world revolves around him and no one can change his mind
“He’s a whole jerk – not even half,” the shelter employees admit. If you can describe the dog’s worldview system in one word, it would be “Ralphicentric”. According to Ralphie, everything around him belongs to him, and only to him. And if someone else – it does not matter, another dog, cat or human being, covets his property, then his righteous wrath will ensue.
Image credits: Niagara SPCA
Image credits: Niagara SPCA
“The ideal home for Ralphie is the Mother of Dragons,” honestly write the authors of the post. It is likely that in his past life, the little French bulldog was called Drogon and was a mighty fire-breathing dragon, and since then his character has changed little. “If you show a moment of weakness, prepare to be exploited,” the shelter staff say.
Image credits: Niagara SPCA
Turns out, it’s the brilliant example of the copywriting style called “by the contrary”
“An example of such a text in copywriting is called ‘by the contrary,’ and this technique works pretty successfully,” says Oleksiy Arkhireyev, a Ukrainian copywriter and novelist, who was asked by Bored Panda to comment on this story. “Although this is actually more difficult than just listing the advantages. You need to honestly expose all the shortcomings, but at the same time illuminate them from such an angle that they look almost like advantages. Humor, by the way, helps a lot here.”
Image credits: Niagara SPCA
“A great example of a ‘by the contrary’ ad is, for example, a campaign by fashion brand The Row, who bought an entire spread in Vogue a few years ago, but instead of filling it with model pictures, as almost everyone does, left the pages pure white, and just wrote the address of their official website. It looked bold, spectacular – and it definitely worked,” says Alexey.
Image credits: Niagara SPCA
Image credits: Niagara SPCA