AOL clarified its Terms of Service, and it’s all because of storytelling.
As you may have gathered, I didn’t think much of the recent hubbub over AOL’s privacy policy. There was no evidence that the company was acting maliciously, and they explicitly ruled out reading IMs in their privacy policy. If they were guilty of anything, it was poorly-worded legalese – 13-month old legalese. Yet despite a few small outbreaks of common sense, half the Internet lined up behind a now-partially-retracted Slashdot posting to back this urban myth in the making. And now that AOL has changed the terms of its policy to be more clear, the original firestarter is claiming victory. This all strikes me as a little ludicrous, since I doubt AOL’s behaviour will change in the slightest – there was nothing untoward to begin with. The only people who should be calling this a ‘victory’ are the ones that need the “Warning: Hot Coffee is Hot” label on the side of their styrofoam cups.
So if there was nothing to it, why did this bit of hype spread the way it did? Early this morning, after reading through Seth Godin’s new All Marketers Are Liars blog, it occurred to me – the hype had all the elements of a great story. It had:
- a little guy / underdog / whistleblower
- a villainous corporation
- a nefarious plan
- a clear good vs. evil storyline
- opportunities for collective action
In other words, over the weekend we all got together and spontaneously recreated the plot of Erin Brockovich. No wonder everyone posted and reposted and reposted – it was too good not to be true. The truth of it didn’t matter. It tapped into the basic narrative elements we’ve collectively sucked up over a lifetime of media consumption, so it had to be told and retold.
Marketers who understand the elemental narratives that resonate with their markets are going to be able to play the Internet like a fiddle. In the meantime, companies need to be vigilant. Will this piece of unverified and not-understood information blow up on Microsoft, or will blog-savvy Microsoft employees catch it and nip it in the bud?
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