124 – Advertising Tricks: What We Can Learn From Donald Trump

This is our last show before Donald Trump officially becomes the President of the United States of America. That's a scary thought for many people. I have no opinion on whether he will be a great President or a great disaster – I'm a Canadian, so that's not my worry.

I am interested in how President Trump's policies will impact Canada. Even the experts don't know what will happen; how could they? None of them predicted that Trump would win the election, so the future is uncertain. We made some predictions on last week's podcast. My guess is that interest rates will increase, trade with the U.S. may become more difficult, and that may impact Canada. The prudent course of action is to reduce your debt now, so that you are protected from higher interest rates.

Of greater interest to me, as an observer from Canada, is how Donald Trump used various tricks to convince Americans to vote for him. These tricks are the same tricks that advertisers use to get us to buy their products, so learning these tricks can help protect us against advertising.

We humans are driven by emotions in a lot of what we do. We have seen cases where people turn to debt as a way of coping with loss. It could be grief for the loss of a loved one, or maybe loss of income that launches you towards a new opportunity.

Trump's biggest trick is that he appeals to people on an emotional level. He ignores facts and some would say that he just makes stuff up.