Lance Link, Wang Fu, And The Dragon Woman

Dear Friend,

You may foolishly believe that the genesis for the Austin Powers movies, was James Bond, but I'm here to tell you this is only paritally true.

If you are a child of the 1960's like me, you may remember a television show called "Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp."  The show was like a chimpanzee "spoof" on the Get Smart series from the late 1960's.

Real life chimps with overdubbed human voices acted out spy spoofs, and frankly they did a better job of it than some of the crap I see real live people doing on TV now.  Lance Link and his hot babe girlfriend, Mata Hairi (both secret agents working for A.P.E. -- The Agency to Prevent Evil -- performed songs at the Coconut Groove nightclub as part of a groovy psychedelic band called The Evolution Revolution (in pre-MTV videos).

The group would pass on coded information in their songs to other A.P.E. agents, like Commander Darwin.

Some of the villains that Lance Link battled wits with, were Dr. Strangemind... Dragon Woman and her main squeeze, Baron Von Butcher... Wang Fu (with a fu-manchu styled moustache and all)... and Ali Assa Seen.  All these bad guys (bad apes?) worked for C.H.U.M.P. (Criminal Headquarters for Underworld Master Plan).

Oddly enough, in 1987, years after the show was cancelled here in 1972, it ran in Zaire and Lance Link then became the number one show on Zaire TV.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, I stumbled across Lancelot Link, and somehow found out they just released the DVD's of these old shows.  I eagerly ordered the 2-DVD set, figuring when it came, I'd pop it in the DVD player and watch it with my kids.  They're always asking what kinds of things I used to enjoy as a kid, and frankly, for some unknown reason, I used to love this show. 

If I had to bet, I'd guess it was a combination of the Psychedelic music and "groovy" outfits the monkeys wore, but I really have no clue.  Plus, Lance Link himself was a pretty cool dude and had a great voice.

So I get the DVD in the mail the other day, I rip open the package and I march downstairs and put it on.  Needless to say, this was a rare occurrence and drew quite a bit of attention.  I'm not sure what astounded everyone more: me watching television, or me watching television at 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

I tell the kids what's going on, and they all gather around.  My daughter sits herself on top of me, and my sons on both side of me, all huddled together on the couch.

The episodes come on, and there I was, instantly taken back over 30 years to my childhood -- a nostalgic afternoon delight, if I may say so myself.

And how do my kids react? 

Nope, not how you're thinking.

After the first episode, my oldest son Nick turns around and starts reading his book... Casey - my younger son -- says, "Dad, this is kinda slow"... and Samantha, my 6-year old who's as blunt as I am, but much better looking, says "This is boring." and actually just gets up off of me and leaves.

I felt like a life insurance agent who just got asked what he did for a living in a crowded elevator:  Alone... and unwanted.

Why did this happen?

The answer is simple: See, although Lancelot Link pushed a major "nostalgia button" in my life, it did absolutely nothing for my kids.  In fact, it was effectively "enthusiasm repellant."

And this is what often happens in your marketing.  You think you're going to be pushing ONE emotional buy-button that's going to make your prospects salivate, but if you're off -- even a little bit -- not only will you NOT get the sale, but you'll leave them hanging, high and dry. They'll bolt on you faster than a government employee at a union meeting.

The bottom line is, if you're not tapping into the RIGHT emotional buy-buttons of your prospects, you're dead in the water.

Here's the thing though: Nostalgia happens to be a good emotional buy button to push -- in the right circumstances.  In fact, in Chapter 29 of The Seductive Selling System - http://www.kingofcopy.com/seductive -- I show you how to use nostalgia VERY effectively.  I even show you how to use it when you're trying to re-kindle a certain nostalgic "feeling", as opposed to making your prospect re-live an actual particluar "experience" from their past (sometimes you need to do this to bond with your prospects).

But if you do this wrong, it has the same effect as if you're a surgeon and you remove the wrong body part: No matter HOW hard you tried, what you did was rendered completely effective.

The good news is, pushing the right emotional buy-buttons, is actually pretty easy to do this once you get the basics behind you, and I've put my money where my mouth is with The Seductive Selling System, by backing up my work with two HUGE guarantees.  Check it out, or run the risk of looking like Lancelot Link -- a little chimp, instead of a marketing champ: http://www.kingofcopy.com/seductive

Now go sell something,

Craig Garber

P.S. Test-Drive the HUGE DOUBLE SUMMER July/August issue of Seductive Selling and get $794 Dollars worth of free gifts with your free trial subscribtion: http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl

Any comments?

Send them to me by scooting over to the contact form on my "Here's How To Contact Craig" page, and maybe I'll publish them -- I appreciate your feedback!

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