# Persuasion Case Studies

## Immortal Fans — SC Recife (Brazil, 2013)

**Problem:** Critical shortage of organ donors in Brazil.
**Audience:** Passionate football fans of Sport Club Recife.
**Misbelief:** Organ donation is morbid and irrelevant to my life.
**Approach:** Tapped into fans' single most consuming passion — love for the club. "What if your organs could keep rooting for SC Recife after you're gone?" Cards carrying organ donor pledges became badges of tribal loyalty.
**Key mechanism:** Spoke to the audience's self-narrative rather than threatening it.
**Results:** 51,000 donor cards issued. Organ donations rose 54%. Transplant waiting lists hit zero for the first time.

## Always #LikeAGirl (2014)

**Problem:** Always needed to connect with a new generation of girls. Over 80% of girls had a negative association with "like a girl."
**Misbelief:** Doing something "like a girl" means doing it poorly.
**Approach:** Director asked teens to demonstrate running/fighting/throwing "like a girl." They mimed weakness. Then asked a 10-year-old — she ran flat out. Younger girls did the same. The contrast unfolded in real time. No one was told what to think.
**Realization:** A teenage boy, asked if he'd insulted his sister, stopped cold: his sister is a girl.
**Transformation:** A teenage girl asked to "run like a girl" again ran like herself — fast, focused, determined.
**Results:** Positive association with "like a girl" rose from 19% to 76%. Two-thirds of men said they'd think twice. Most-shared Super Bowl ad of 2015. UN award for impact on female empowerment.

## Motel 6 / Tom Bodett

**Problem:** Nobody wanted to admit staying at Motel 6, even though everyone in the focus group had.
**Misbelief:** Staying at Motel 6 signals you're poor or stingy.
**Research insight:** One woman said: "If it's late at night, I'll stay. And the money I save, I can spend on a tank of gas." Others echoed her. The shame transformed into pride. They weren't cheap — they were frugal.
**Truth:** Staying at Motel 6 means you're smart with money and spend it on what matters.
**Tagline (ad-libbed by Tom Bodett):** "We'll leave the light on for you."
**Why it worked:** Offered what every weary traveller needs — the feeling that someone sees you, knows what you're going through, and is on your side.
**Results:** 30 consecutive years of growth. Consistently rated best value in economy lodging.

## Extra Gum — "The Story of Sarah & Juan" (2015)

**Misbelief:** Gum is trivial, a throwaway.
**Approach:** A couple's relationship across a decade, catalogued through gum wrappers Juan saves, each with a tiny sketch. At the end, framed in a gallery. The last sketch shows him on one knee.
**Point:** Even the smallest, most ordinary moments can be the glue of a lasting love.
**Emotion:** Unexpected joy; the tenderness of being truly seen.
**Results:** 78 million Facebook views. 1.1 million shares in one week.

## WATERisLIFE — Nkaitole's Bucket List

**Problem:** Children dying from unsafe water in Kenya — abstract statistics nobody acts on.
**Approach:** Told the story of Nkaitole, a 4-year-old with a 1-in-5 chance of dying before age five. Helped him complete a bucket list: ride a boat, play football, fly in a plane, see the ocean.
**Key mechanism:** The audience is the implied protagonist — we have what Nkaitole lacks: the power to donate. Statistics would have remained abstract. The specificity of one child made it unbearable not to act.

## Teen Driver — Noah DeVico (PSA)

**Misbelief:** I have to reply immediately or I'll lose Becky to Malik — belonging is worth the risk.
**Approach:** Instead of crash footage (fear → paralysis), built a story around a girl driving with her dog. She's giggling at her phone; the dog stares at her. A small huff breaks the spell. She puts the phone in the glove box.
**Point:** Caring for your loved ones is worth more than staying in the loop.
**Key emotion:** Unconditional love (the dog), not fear.
**Why it worked:** By giving the protagonist agency — the choice is hers, not forced — the story activated the brain's reward circuitry. Autonomous choice makes the story one of triumph, not cautionary tale.

## Lynda.com

**Background:** In 1995, Lynda Weinman wrote a web design textbook in a friendly, story-based style for art school students intimidated by technology. Her publisher rewrote it to match their technical-manual house style.
**The Aha moment:** She called on a Monday: "I consider this a rejection of my work." She exercised her contract clause and demanded her rights back.
**Results:** Published in original form. First industry textbook of its kind. Over one million copies sold. Translated into 12 languages. In 2015, LinkedIn bought Lynda.com for $1.5 billion.
**The lesson:** The book's value came precisely from what the publisher tried to eliminate — its humanity, accessibility, and trust in the reader. Vulnerability was the path to reaching her audience.

## Common Patterns Across Case Studies

1. **None led with facts or statistics.** All led with story.
2. **All identified the audience's specific misbelief** — not the logical objection, the emotional one.
3. **All spoke to the audience's self-narrative** rather than threatening it.
4. **All gave the protagonist agency** — the transformation was chosen, not forced.
5. **All used specificity** — one person, one moment, one concrete detail — rather than abstractions.
6. **All ended at the transformation** — no lingering codas or explicit moralising.
