Boron - Chapter 19

And this: You either hook a reader or lose him when he very
first looks at your ad or DM piece. Not when he reads it,
but when he first looks at it.

Now, of course, this rule is not 100% accurate. Sometimes a
person will suddenly fall in love with a person he or she
has known for years; sometimes a jury will change it's mind
after the opening argument; sometimes an interviewer will
decide to hire an applicant he had originally (in his mind)
rejected. And, sometimes, a reader will read and order from
your ad, even though he was turned off by it when he first
saw it.

But don't count on this. Most of the time a person will
never alter his original impression. Most of the time he
will simply "edit" all new info that comes to him and
"process" it in such a way as to validate his original
opinion.

So; what does this mean when it comes to creating
advertising? What it means is your ad or DM piece should
give your prospect a life; should cause his pupils to dilate
as soon as he sees it.

Did I ever tell you that good poker players often watch
their opponent's eyes when they draw new cards? What they
are looking for is to see the reaction of their opponent's
eyes to the cards they draw. If their eyes widen, that is if
their pupils dilate that means that they liked the new cards
they received. If their pupils constrict it probably means
that what happened is that they received cards of which they
are not fond.

This is a totally involuntary reaction. Apparently, what
happens is that when we see something we like our eyes open
up so we can let in more light and see more of it. And,
conversely, when we see something we don't like we do just
the opposite; we try to cut down the flow of light so we
don't have to see as much of it.

Well, I have a theory about all this and what I believe is
that most (or many) of our decisions about how we like or
dislike something are made not in 40 seconds or the first 4
or 40 minutes but rather in the first fraction of a second
that we see something new.