I'm Blind. Please Help.
The power of words.
There was a beggar sitting by a sign in a city which read:
"I'm Blind. Please help".
There was nothing extraordinary about the sign or the blind man, just the usual patience and sporadic offerings of change.
Most people walked past without noticing, some would stop and offer a few pennies which the blind man would fumble for and put into his jar, stating his gratitude as he did so.
Then at one point, a lady walked past the sign, read it, and carried on. A few meters past the man, she stopped, and came back.
Turning the sign around, she wrote a new one for him and placed it down again. He felt her feet and shoes while she did this (a way of recognising her).
She walked off again after putting the new sign down.
From then on, everyone who walked past left money, there was a constant flow of change which the man was struggling to keep up with.
Not a single person who read the sign didn't leave change.
Later, the woman returned and crouched down in front of the blind man to check on him. He recognised her (via the shoe touching) and asked with disbelief "What did write on my sign?"
She replied. "The same, but different words."
The new sign read:
"It's a beautiful day and I can't see it".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzgzim5m7oU
It's not just what you say on your sites that counts, but how you say it.
(I'm not associated with the makers of the video at all)
Recent Comments
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I've read of this story many times, and it's no less poignant now than it was years ago. Thanks for the reminder. Lee
First time I had heard it but it doesn't surprise me that's it's been around for a while.
This is very good Dom. It show just how using words that basically mean the same but stated differently can have a huge impact, whether is be for that blind man or a web page. Nice :)
Yeah..when I saw that the video was made by "online content marketing experts" I had a lightbulb moment!
LOL, it's actually a rip off of David Olgilvy's (of Ogilvy & Mather Advertising) rip-off based on an incident in the life of French poet Jacques Prevert. Ogilvy changed the sign from "I am blind" to "It is spring, and I am blind." http://www.awaionline.com/2013/02/david-ogilvys-copywriting-technique/ :P R. x
It's actually an advertising "classic" from the 1960's, it's still being paraded in lectures at Uni. R. x
What a beautiful post :)
It´s shows without doubt the strength of words. Thanks for sharing.
oh wow DOM...that is really a great example for the power that the words have...what it matters is how we present what we actually want to convey..a special advice for our contents...:)
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I'm glad your post was about that story. I saw it in a YouTube vid some time ago. I was attracted to the post because I thought you were going to tell us how to make a braille website. They're tough to do...
Just make sure it is uses a "responsive" theme. (groan)