4 easy payments for placebo; record label infomercial scam
Record labels and informercials certainly prey upon a similar types of financial victims. Both of their core money makers don’t have any to begin with and end up convinced to give it away to very convincing sharletons with a bit of mental judo. You didn’t know you needed this, but now you won’t be able to go without it!
But What if they joined forces to take money from the general population together? That’s exactly what happened after a series of strange events in 1978.
Dan Blitzer was a fringe self proclaimed musical genius. What he lacked in musical ability he made up with strong charisma. Most people he met thought he was a musical revolutionary without ever a note he played or even composed.
He had a special brand of creative philosophy that won people over and convinced them he would be a hit.
It even worked on the folks at ho dangus records! He had so much charm and a dizzying bubble of importance and urgency around him, that what songs he would put out just mostly faded behind.
He got a record deal, when Todd and Tob at ho dangus only actually ever heard songs mostly done by favors for Dan by musicians he also enchanted.
Dan spent his advance money how you would expect, living among groups that inflated his ego and propped up the framework of how important his fictional career would be.
Eventually the label got itchy for the fantasy to become reality. They started to wonder if Dan’s price was too high.
After a lot of pressure and babysitting, they were able to divert Dan from his social campaigning enough to come into the studio.
And to their shock, Dan was terrible. Not only did he lack technical skills of any kind, but he wasn’t a creative mastermind either. His creative direction was even tacky and amateurish, giving session musicians a bad taste when they didn’t want to play a cheesy or out of tune idea.
The label was left with a steaming pile of dreary and bland instrumental music. Singers just didn’t want to be identified as being a face for Dan’s tacky mediocre bluff.
How could the label come out ahead with this waste of time and money?
The answer is really simple. Convince people that the blandness is a utility, a new product that helps in ways that good music can’t.
A safe and side effect free cure all. Anxiety relief, sleeping pill subistute and dangus wouldn’t claim it (but says their customers do), also an anti depressant.
They beamed out a commercial on late night TV, hoping to scrape up insomniacs who were desperate.
“Hypnotize yourself into peaceful catatonia” was the final zinger in their ludicrous sales pitch. People bought it. It was hard to say if it really worked or if BSTMYS was strong evidence for the placebo effect. Many customers were happy and gave testimonies about easy sleep or relaxation problems.
In today’s world of Amazon reviews and people scrolling YouTube and TikTok when they can’t sleep, we may never see a beautiful scam quite like what Dangus did again. But it is certain that Dan’s music is bland enough to make a label desperate to recoup their music in any age.
4 easy payments for placebo; record label infomercial scam
Record labels and informercials certainly prey upon a similar types of financial victims. Both of their core money makers don’t have any to begin with and end up convinced to give it away to very convincing sharletons with a bit of mental judo.
You didn’t know you needed this, but now you won’t be able to go without it!
But What if they joined forces to take money from the general population together? That’s exactly what happened after a series of strange events in 1978.
Dan Blitzer was a fringe self proclaimed musical genius. What he lacked in musical ability he made up with strong charisma.
Most people he met thought he was a musical revolutionary without ever a note he played or even composed.
He had a special brand of creative philosophy that won people over and convinced them he would be a hit.
It even worked on the folks at ho dangus records! He had so much charm and a dizzying bubble of importance and urgency around him, that what songs he would put out just mostly faded behind.
He got a record deal, when Todd and Tob at ho dangus only actually ever heard songs mostly done by favors for Dan by musicians he also enchanted.
Dan spent his advance money how you would expect, living among groups that inflated his ego and propped up the framework of how important his fictional career would be.
Eventually the label got itchy for the fantasy to become reality. They started to wonder if Dan’s price was too high.
After a lot of pressure and babysitting, they were able to divert Dan from his social campaigning enough to come into the studio.
And to their shock, Dan was terrible. Not only did he lack technical skills of any kind, but he wasn’t a creative mastermind either. His creative direction was even tacky and amateurish, giving session musicians a bad taste when they didn’t want to play a cheesy or out of tune idea.
The label was left with a steaming pile of dreary and bland instrumental music.
Singers just didn’t want to be identified as being a face for Dan’s tacky mediocre bluff.
How could the label come out ahead with this waste of time and money?
The answer is really simple. Convince people that the blandness is a utility, a new product that helps in ways that good music can’t.
A safe and side effect free cure all. Anxiety relief, sleeping pill subistute and dangus wouldn’t claim it (but says their customers do), also an anti depressant.
They beamed out a commercial on late night TV, hoping to scrape up insomniacs who were desperate.
“Hypnotize yourself into peaceful catatonia” was the final zinger in their ludicrous sales pitch. People bought it. It was hard to say if it really worked or if BSTMYS was strong evidence for the placebo effect. Many customers were happy and gave testimonies about easy sleep or relaxation problems.
In today’s world of Amazon reviews and people scrolling YouTube and TikTok when they can’t sleep, we may never see a beautiful scam quite like what Dangus did again. But it is certain that Dan’s music is bland enough to make a label desperate to recoup their music in any age.
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