In Marketing, we have this tired idea of cut through.
We’re told we need to ‘make a stand’, ‘take a side’, cause division, etc because ‘if everyone agrees with us then no one agrees with us’ (and other cliches)… so we need to make a claim that interrupts people. That, we’re told, is how we can capture attention. We call this ‘creating cut through’.
The idea itself isn’t terrible in itself (there’s truth to it for sure), but sadly it’s been so extrapolated and misinterpreted that we now find ourselves in a sea of rage bait, misinformation and contrived controversy.
Instead of sharing a thought where we might have differences of opinion politely debated, the approach these days is to alienate and then spotlight those who are alienated.
Cut through and novelty go together of course. We naturally want new things.
We want novel ideas no matter how silly they are.
For example, there will be podcasts full of health misinformation detailing the benefits of raw milk and the dangers of seed oils when we all know health is about sleeping well, not smoking, eating nutrient-rich foods, exercising regularly, lifting heavy weights, and surrounding ourselves with a quality social circle of friends.
But that’s not novel. That’s not interesting. Everyone knows that, so there’s no cut through.
Instead, we have to resort to controversial topics. And the last resort of the desperate attempt to cut through is to label posts “unpopular opinion” or “hot take” as if that will somehow make up for first order ‘thinking’.
The ideas that cut though are rarely foundational. Amidst the noise of cut through attempts there are occasional high impact items (ie signal), so we still need to be open to them. But finding the right mix is a skill in itself, and what really separates the well informed from the highly opinionated.
