Yesterday I read the New York Times “Taylor Momsen did not write this headline” column about search engine optimization, Google rankings and basically how the blog factory, aggregators and new media are boxing web headline writers into formulas and tactics that aren’t punny or appealing in a literary way like those of yore. Today I’m listening to the Stuff Mom Never Told You podcast “The Not-So-Skimpy History of the Bikini” (don’t judge) and I hear hosts Molly Edmonds and Cristen Conger doing damage control on their own headline mishap during the listener mail portion at the end.
On April 7 they released a show called “Why have Japanese condom sales dropped?” It was partially inspired by the NYT Magazine article “Love in 2-D,” which covered a Japanese subculture of men who have fallen in love with pillows depicting their favorite anime, manga and video game characters (the first glimpse of this for American audiences, in parody form, was a 30 Rock plotline where James Franco was in love with one). Now, treating a pillow like your wife or girlfriend and condom sales dropping are correlation vs. causation, two separate issues. But does that matter when it gets people to listen to your podcast?
Edmonds:
Now, let’s also point out that the title was a little bit tongue-in-cheek. Because we got many e-mails that tried to explain to us all the reasons why Japanese condom sales might be dropping, and these included things like the aging of the Japanese population, the Japanese attitude towards work — one woman wrote in and she had a Japanese boyfriend and he has to work, y’know, 60 hours a week, and so she’s like of course, you know, you sleep when you get home after that kind of work. Like you may not be having as much sex. Umm, one person pointed out that the age at which Japanese youth lose their virginity is not that different than in the U.S….
Then Conger cuts in:
So obviously, you know, it’s a complex issue and the point we were trying to make with the title was, admittedly, to try to get your attention, which it did … the answer to that question in the podcast was not Japanese condom sales have dropped because people read manga. That wasn’t the point at all.
I am certain neither of the hosts had any ill will in mind, nor were they attempting to popularize some outrageous and unfound postulation. It does make you think about being careful when crafting a title that you want to be attention-grabbing but not misleading, though. That’s a struggle that old and new media alike deal with constantly.
