Did you hear the one about…?

It’s so easy to put something out there on the Internet and have people believe it. On Facebook for example, there have been a number of times I’ve seen people put in their status, a comment that had been said by someone else. They just copied and pasted and passed it along. There is a name for that. It’s called gossip. And not just gossip but opinions, reviews, travel descriptions—all based on someone’s perspective. I’ve been guilty of passing those Facebook status things along. How about you?

I was thinking about the trip my parents and I took last summer to Canada. And recently I found some comments online about this place we visited—Frontier Village in Sault Ste. Marie. If you read my post on it, I stated that it was a couple of shops, a fry stand, and ice cream place with some wooden statues of Wild West characters scattered around. We missed it several times (it was right on the side of the big highway) and even asked for directions to it from a local who gave us a weird look. But, here is how two Web sites describe it.

Frontier Village vividly recreates life in the nineteenth century.
Visit Frontier Village and catch a glimpse of what Sault Ste. Marie looked like in the 1800s. There is a collection of stores, restaurants, and craft shops associated with the era. Life-size woodcarvings depict scenes from the Old West.

Nice. Makes me want to seek out this place. Oh wait. I did. Was it fun? Yes. But only because of how the reality of it compared to the descriptions. See below and you tell me.

I remember once I was writing some marketing copy for an upcoming conference and found a great quote about San Diego on some Web site. My boss asked me to confirm it and after looking for the source, found that the source of the quote had gone out of business long ago and the quote had been used over and over again by various organizations such as mine. We had each found something online and took it for granted that it was the truth because it was posted on some Web site.

I find it interesting that it’s so easy for us to believe rumors or what the media tells us and yet so many doubt or even refute the truth of Jesus. Why do we put blinders on to something so wonderful and yet accept lies and deceit so easily? It’s sad but I guess it’s just human nature. I often pray to God to help me stop and pull the plank out of my eye before telling another about their splinter.

I am a professional marketer and it’s my job to persuade people to purchase products or register for events. But I have found that I can be successful by telling the truth. If you feel like you have to stretch the truth or lie in order to sell something, then why are you standing behind it? Just a thought.

Well, I’m off to read some travel brochures. They say this place in Nova Scotia has great whale watching and that it’s the most beautiful scenery in the world. Hmmmm.