Social Engineering - Christopher Hadnagy [132]
This type of manipulation is worth discussing because a diversion tactic can work on a much smaller scale in a personal setting, too. If you are caught in an area or place you should not be, then having a good cover story that is believable can go a long way toward manipulating the target to allow you safe passage. Diverting the target’s attention to something other than the problem at hand can give you enough time to redirect his or her concern. For example, if you are caught by a security guard, instead of getting nervous, you could simply look at him and say, “Do you know what I am doing here? Did you hear that some USB keys have been lost with very important data on them? It is imperative we find them before everyone comes in tomorrow. Do you want to check the bathrooms?”
Many of you probably never heard about the Motrin recall story, showing that the company did a good job of manipulating (so far) the media and justice system to keep the limelight off of it. Regardless, this situation outlines how diversion and cover-up can be used in manipulation.
Anxiety Cured at Last
In 1998 SmithKline Beecham, one the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, launched an ad campaign designed to “educate” the masses about something it called “social anxiety disorder.” It planted 50 press stories and surveys with questions like, “Do you have social anxiety disorder?” These quizzes and surveys were geared to “educate” people on this disorder and how to tell whether they suffer from it.
Later that year it changed its marketing campaign copy in medical journals from “Paxil means peace…in depression, panic disorder, and OCD” to “Show them they can…the first and only approved treatment for social anxiety disorder.” This change cost the company about $1 million to make.
In 1999, a $30 million campaign was launched on print and television announcing that SmithKline Beecham found the cure for social anxiety disorder, and its name is Paxil. Using the data from the surveys and quizzes the company bought spots in some of the “hottest” television shows at that time and spouted statistics that 10 million Americans suffer from SAD (social anxiety disorder), and now there is hope.
By 2000, Paxil sales accounted for half of the increase in the entire market: The company “became number one in the U.S. selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor market for new retail prescriptions in 2000.’’ In 2001 it won FDA approval to market Paxil for both generalized anxiety disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder.
The 9/11 attacks resulted in a dramatic increase in prescriptions for all antidepressants and anxiety drugs. During this time Paxil’s advertising positioned it as an answer to the uncontrollable feelings of fear and helplessness that many people felt in the aftermath of the attacks.
I am not saying that these drugs do not work, or that the company’s motive is malicious, but I find this case particularly interesting in that the manipulation of the market started with education and ended with a massive increase in sales, while creating new disorders along the way.
This type of case-building manipulation is often used in marketing, but is also used in politics and even on a personal level, presenting a problem that is terrible, but then presenting “facts” that you have derived as proof of why what you say is true. On one episode of The Real Hustle, Paul Wilson set up a scenario where he had to extract a famous star they were using in a scam to steal some CDs from a store. The store clerk detained the star and waited for the cops to arrive. Paul walked in, identified himself as a cop, flashed his wallet with nothing more than a picture of his kids in it, and was able to “arrest” the star, take the CDs and the money in the cash register as evidence, and leave unquestioned. This story is an excellent example of this type of case-building manipulation. Paul had a problem (the thieving star) and presented himself as the solution (the cop) to the problem. Whatever the scenario, build the case for what a good person