If you’re weak in a certain area, it makes sense to divert attention away from that area.
This is how the North Vietnamese won the Viet Nam war.
They had to supply their armies fighting the Americans in the South Viet Nam.
They sent these supplies along the Ho Chi Minh trail.
The Americans knew that if they could cut this vital supply route, the North Vietnamese armies have no food, no ammunition, and no fuel.
And they’d lose the war.
So the Americans located the weakest point in the Ho Chi Minh trail.
It was a bridge crossing the Mekong River.
The Americans destroyed it with air strikes.
But just days later, the Vietnamese had rebuilt it.
The Americans destroyed it again.
Again the Vietnamese rebuilt it.
More and more US Air Force resources were diverted to destroying the bridge.
Somehow, immediately it was destroyed, it was rebuilt.
And all the while the Ho Chi Minh trail remained unbroken.
And, because the US couldn’t cut the trail, Viet Nam won the war.
After the war, it was revealed the bridge was a fake.
It was made out of plywood and bamboo and couldn’t carry anything.
But from the air it looked like a real bridge.
It was there to divert attention away from the actual crossing point.
Close by was a ford, six inches below the surface of the muddy river.
It couldn’t be seen from the air, and lorries would cross every night.
While the fake bridge was being repaired to divert American attention.
Diverting attention is a good advertising lesson.
Like a lot of American fast food outlets, MacDonalds made good hamburgers. french-fries, and milkshakes.
But, unlike the others, MacDonalds marketed itself to children.
With cartoon characters, bright colours, free games and toys.
And Ronald MacDonald, Mayor MacCheese, and the Hamburglar.
Very childish and lots of fun.
Children would ask to be taken there.
And every child came complete with one or two parents.
And the parents weren’t going to just sit there while their child ate.
So the parents ordered hamburgers and french fries too.
In fact MacDonalds sold many times more hamburgers, french-fries, and milkshakes to adults.
By pretending to be selling them to children.
And by diverting attention away from what they were really doing.