I feel the same way about thumbnails that use sexual innuendo.
It is not about people having fun. It is about the manipulation of humans by using their base instincts and natural reactions to control them. I spent years as a salesman and learned all of these psychological-emotional manipulation techniques. I know exactly what is behind them and why they are so successful. Let me tell you a little story.
I once had an old 1979 Ford F-250 pickup. I bought it for $1,500. The guy fooled me by somehow rigging the engine to run and not smoke. When I got the truck home and did an oil change on it, it started smoking like a fog machine. The engine had SIX cracked pistons and one was missing the rings! I ended up spending over $4,000 to get the truck running right again, and this was in the 1990s. Sometime later, I changed jobs and did not need the truck anymore, so I put it up for sale. I ran an ad paid for a solid month but I could not get anyone to buy it, even though I had dropped the price down to $1,000. I showed all the prospective buyers the receipts for all the new stuff it had on it totaling over $4,000, but no one would even look twice at the truck. I knew what I had to do, but it felt wrong to do it. Finally, I gave up and went out and put two coats of high gloss wax on the truck. I painted the tire with flat black paint, I wax and polished that truck from top to bottom. I then doubled the price and listed it for $2,000 and sold it to the first person who looked at it, no questions asked.
Now here is another story. I once went to a car dealership to buy a used car. I did not have much money at the time due to a serious medical issue I had recently been through. I looked at everything on the lot in my price range, but could not find anything that was not a total piece of trash. I was about to walk out when the salesman said that something had just been traded in that I might be interested in. He took me over to look at it and he was all apologetic about its condition. It was a Nissan Pathfinder 4X4. It was dirty and had mud on it. The inside was cluttered up as well. I could not believe my eyes. It was exactly what I was looking for and I knew I could not afford it. I turned to the guy and said, I told you what my price range is. He said yes, you can afford this. I was like, "Are you sure? Is the engine blown or something?". When he told me the price, my jaw hit the floor. he quoted me HALF of what I knew the value of the vehicle to be. I agreed to buy the car on the spot and signed the paperwork within the hour. The salesman insisted that I let them keep the car overnight so he could have it detailed for me. The next day when I went to pick it up, the same salesman was acting strange. He kept offering me other vehicles that he said were "Much Better". Finally, I had to get firm and demand that he give me my car. He looked at me and said, "You know you stole that car from us don't you?". I said, "I paid the price you offered me." He said, "But you knew it was worth a lot more." I said, "I knew it was a really good deal, that is why I took you upon it." He offered to buy the car back from me right there for $2,000 over what I paid for it, but I turned him down. When I got out to my car there were three salesmen that tried t buy the car off of me for up to double what I paid for it. I got in it and drove away. Best car I ever owned. Had it for 15 years. Both my kids learned to drive in it and it was a first car for both of them. I believe all kids should learn to drive a stick shift first.
These two stories have something in common and it is not cars. It has to do with understanding VALUE how to recognize it, and also how not to be controlled by base human emotions. In the first story, I had a great truck for sale that had great value, but nobody would buy it because it was not shinny. I was trying to sell it on its true value. The part of it that made it go down the road. I couldn't give it away though. So, I waxed and polished it and immediately sold it for twice what I was originally asking for it. The second story is about a bunch of trained salesman that actually know how to manipulate people by making things look shinny, but were themselves victims of their own craft. They should have learned to look at the true value of a vehicle outside of it being shinny and sparkly, but they too were given over to their base emotional reactions, so they undervalued that Pathfinder just because it was dirty. But I on the other hand was completely unaffected by the phiscal appearance of the Pahtfinder and was only concerned about he true value of the car.
You see, this is why I find misleading thumbnails insulting. It is just like me waxing and polishing that old truck to sell it, only the truck was actually something of significant value. A flashy thumbnail on a video that does not offer the value the thumbnail implies it contains, is like polishing a broken down car just to fool people into buying it. I don't like deception. I don't like having to use deception to succeed. I don't like it that people refuse to look at real value and choose to just be led around by their base emotions. But such is the world we live in.
For as long as I have had my channel, I have tried to do the same thing that I did when I first tried to sale that old truck. I tried to let the value of my content be the attractant to viewers. But you know what? Maybe it is time for me to let go of my high standards and just jump in with both feet and start waxing and polishing to make things shiny and sparkly. Maybe it is time for me to stop resisting the trend and start using clickbaitish thumbnails techniques. Seems to work well for everyone else. People want to be fish drawn to shinny lures. I can do that. I am a fisherman after all.
View: https://youtu.be/93lrosBEW-Q
