Making an Impression that will Stick

Here is an email I received the other day from an old friend she said:

This picture was found in a camera during cleanup.
This is a fantastic photo!! Amazing that the film was still good – or memory stick.

Either one, this really tells the story. Look at how high that wall of water is!!
½ a second before tsunami

This picture was taken on the banks of Sumatra Island (the height of waves was of approx. 32 m = 105 ft).

It was found saved in a digital camera, after the disaster.
We cannot know for sure, but very likely the one who took the picture is not alive any more (it was just a matter of seconds).
Today we can see the last image he/she saw before ending life on Earth

When I first saw this picture I was stunned.  That would be so crazy to see in real life.  Then I looked at the picture closer and realized that it is fake.  Come to find out this email has been traveling the globe for years and has been passed around to millions of people who have pass it on to their contacts.  It has spread like social media fire.

The original photograph has a date stamp of “12.11.2002” (November 12, 2002). The prankster who launched this hoax apparently removed the date stamp because it would have immediately destroyed the illusion that the photograph was taken during the 2004 tsunami.

That is funny!  How is it that something so ludicrous and fake can spread like wildfire yet something that is true and interesting can not seem to make it past the firewalls of your closest friends and family.   Although this story is made up there is something about it that people want to spread.  Some of you reading this blog might be tempted to copy this picture and post it all over Facebook.  Try it and see the responses that pile in.  Why stop a good urban legend when there are so many people out there that just want to believe?  All joking aside, some ideas are inherently interesting and some are just flat out boring yet it doesn’t need to be that way.  It is all in the way we present it.  The words to the email above are not what sales.  It is the picture! Its the emotions that trigger inside when one looks at this picture.   A huge wave that is about to wipe out a city, very interesting.  This story will stick and spread. It is our job to show you how your story, your presentation, your ideas can stick and spread.  Making impressions with explainer videos is what we do!  Your good ideas needs to be presented in a way that will make people spread it.