Stickiness Theme in The Tipping Point

Another important way to analyze social epidemics is to discuss the content being disseminated. Although it’s important for people to spread ideas and products, these people must first decide that the idea or product is worth spreading. Therefore, the idea or product needs to appeal to people it some way. Not only must it be likeable; it must also be memorable, so that it’s easy to pass on to other people. Gladwell coins the term “stickiness” to refer to an idea or product’s memorability, catchiness, and overall ability to hold a person’s attention.

At times, stickiness can be harmful and even highly dangerous. For instance, a cigarette is an extremely sticky product: its “sticky” nicotine content can lead smokers to develop a chemical addiction to the product, leading to the risk of lung cancer. Even so, stickiness can be an important force for good, provided that the product or idea in question is positive. For example, the book describes how the children’s show Sesame Street maximized its stickiness in order to teach children how to read and count. Researchers spent unprecedented amounts of time studying what children did and didn’t find entertaining in a TV show. Their findings prompted them to design a TV show that would use funny characters like Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch to teach lessons about numbers and letters. The Sesame Street researchers distinguished between their show’s stickiness (its humor and entertainment) and its content (the educational lessons that the show’s producers had wanted to pass along to children in the first place). By presenting education in a sticky, memorable form, Sesame Street has succeeded in educating millions of children, demonstrating that the concept of stickiness can be used to transmit positive messages and ideas.

The research that went into Sesame Street also brings up an important point: the stickiness of an idea or product is different from the idea or product itself. In order to be truly successful, a trend’s stickiness must strengthen a person’s awareness of the trendy idea or product itself. Many trends are unsuccessful because the stickiness becomes better-known than the product it was intended to popularize—for example, people frequently remember jingles or funny commercials without remembering the product the commercials advertised. Similarly, the producers of Sesame Street sometimes failed to educate children because the humor of their show distracted young viewers from the educational content. In a sense, then, stickiness is an “uncontrollable” concept. Even when it’s successful, stickiness doesn’t necessarily enable the popularity of an idea or product. But although not all sticky ideas and products become successful, all successful ideas and products are sticky. A trend succeeds when the idea or product in question can be passed easily from one person to another. This process only works when the idea or product is clever, memorable, catchy—or, in a word, sticky.

The concept of stickiness, then, has major ramifications for our understanding of intelligence, education, and persuasion. Most human beings want to believe that they can only be swayed with strong, rational arguments, grounded in evidence and logic. But in fact, the phenomenon of “stickiness” suggests that humans are more often swayed by irrational stimuli like songs, jokes, or simple gimmicks. As Gladwell admits, most people would be disturbed and embarrassed to know how easily they can be controlled by stickiness. Furthermore, stickiness can be dangerous—something members of the anti-smoking movement know very well. Nevertheless, Gladwell doesn’t necessarily see stickiness as a problem. Humans simply aren’t as rational as they’d like to believe, and the first step toward helping and educating people—as the producers of Sesame Street proved—might be acknowledging the importance of stickiness.

Stickiness ThemeTracker

The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Stickiness appears in each chapter of The Tipping Point. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.

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Chapter

Stickiness Quotes in The Tipping Point

Below you will find the important quotes in The Tipping Point related to the theme of Stickiness.

There is more than one way to tip an epidemic, in other words. Epidemics are a function of the people who transmit infectious agents, the infectious agent itself, and the environment in which the infectious agent is operating.

Page Number and Citation: 18

Explanation and Analysis:

Gladwell outlines three basic ways to understand a social epidemic: in terms of the people who start it; in terms of the environment in which it takes place; and in terms of the idea, behavior, product, or message being spread.In a way, this short passage is an outline for the entire book. Each of the three ways of analyzing a social epidemic corresponds to a different section of the book, and in the final two chapters, Gladwell will apply his three methods of analysis to some real-life case studies.It’s important to note that Gladwell does not favor any one of Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaqu

When Winston filter-tip cigarettes were introduced in the spring of 1954, for example, the company came up with the slogan "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should." At the time, the ungrammatical and somehow provocative use of "like" instead of "as" created a minor sensation. It was the kind of phrase that people talked about, like the famous Wendy's tag line from 1984 "Where's the beef?"

Page Number and Citation: 25

Explanation and Analysis:

Gladwell illustrates the concept of “stickiness” by discussing one of the most famous ad campaigns in history: “Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should.” To use Gladwell’s terminology, Winston’s ad campaign was “sticky” in the sense that its tagline was simple, memorable, and easy to repeat. As a result of the catchy tagline, Winston was able to sell more cigarettes than ever before: people remembered the tagline, remembered the cigarettes themselves, and bought them in record numbers.The Winston example illustrates an important point about stickiness, and about social epidemics in general—there’s no fundamental difference between the way a “good” and Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaqu

In 1978, with Gold Box television support, every magazine on the schedule made a profit, an unprecedented turnaround.
What's interesting about this story is that by every normal expectation McCann should have won the test. The gold box idea sounds like a really cheesy idea.

Page Number and Citation: 95

Explanation and Analysis:

In the late 70s, advertisers proposed an ad campaign for the Columbia Record Club: on TV, Columbia ads would advertise about a “gold box” hidden in various Columbia magazines. Anyone who found the hidden gold box would win a free Columbia record. Reluctantly, Columbia agreed to try the ad campaign, and it worked brilliantly: Columbia made a huge profit, and the magazines with a hidden gold box sold in record numbers.As the passage notes, though, the idea was “really cheesy”—an incredibly obvious way to sell more magazines. In this way, Gladwell conveys some of the strengths and weaknesses of stickiness—his Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt.

What we now think of as the essence of Sesame Street—the artful blend of fluffy monsters and earnest adults—grew out of a desperate desire to be sticky.

Page Number and Citation: 106

Explanation and Analysis:

In the late 1960s, a group of TV producers had an idea to produce a TV show, Sesame Street, that would teach children how to read and count. The show would be scientifically designed to teach as many children as effectively as possible. For Gladwell’s purposes, Sesame Street is interesting because it represents one of the first times that TV producers used the concept of stickiness for educational purposes. Every week, scientists and researchers would bring in children as a ”test audience”—then, it would study the children as they watched episodes of Sesame Street, trying to figure out which parts Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus

The pace is deliberate. The script is punctuated with excruciatingly long pauses. There is none of the humor or wordplay or cleverness that characterizes Sesame Street.

Page Number and Citation: 111

Explanation and Analysis:

The chapter contrasts two different children’s TV shows: Sesame Street and Blue’s Clues. Sesame Street, which was first aired in the late 1960s, was one of the first children’s TV shows to use scientific research to optimize its stickiness. Blue’s Clues, aired decades later, built upon Sesame Street’s research to make a show that was even stickier and more engrossing for young children. As the passage suggests, though, Blue’s Clues is a far less entertaining show for adults than Sesame Street. Because scientists have found that young children like lots of repetition and a slow, deliberate pace, Blue’s Clues can Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas de

We all want to believe that the key to making an impact on someone lies with the inherent quality of the ideas we present. But in none of these cases did anyone substantially alter the content of what they were saying. Instead, they tipped the message by tinkering, on the margin, with the presentation of their ideas, by putting the Muppet behind the H-U-G, by mixing Big Bird with the adult.

Page Number and Citation: 131

Explanation and Analysis:

Gladwell reaches the conclusion that, surprisingly often, the presentation of an argument or idea is more persuasive than the argument or idea itself. Furthermore, a small, gimmicky aspect of the presentation is often the most persuasive part. For example, the “gold box” gimmick was the most persuasive part of Columbia’s advertising campaign in the late 1970s. (See quotes above.) Humans want to think that they’re swayed by logic and rationality alone, but in fact, they’re more often swayed by irrational gimmicks—in short, by stickiness.The passage reinforces one of Gladwell’s key points: man is a largely irrational animal. Perhaps by understanding Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident

Between 1955 and 1965, there wasn't a single case of suicide on the entire island. In May 1966, an eighteen-year-old boy hanged himself in his jail cell after being arrested for stealing a bicycle, but his case seemed to have little impact. Then, in November of 1966, came the death of R., the charismatic scion of one of the island's wealthiest families. R. had been seeing two women and had fathered a one-month-old child with each of them. Unable to make up his mind between them, he hanged himself in romantic despair.

Related Characters: R.

Page Number and Citation: 226

Explanation and Analysis:

The passage describes how the suicide epidemic in Micronesia began in the mid-1960s. After decades in which almost no suicides were reported, a few teenagers suddenly killed themselves. In Gladwell’s opinion, this small number of teen suicides in Micronesia then started a wave of suicides in the country. In Gladwell’s terms, people like R. (the teenager who hanged himself in 1966) acted as “Salesmen,” persuading other Micronesian teenagers to kill themselves, too. Like any social epidemic, suicide was contagious, and it spread across the country.It seems particularly odd to represent suicide as a social phenomenon, subject to the same laws Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas.

The children of smokers are more than twice as likely to smoke as the children of nonsmokers. That's a well-known fact. But … that does not mean that parents who smoke around their children set an example that their kids follow. It simply means that smokers' children have inherited genes from their parents that predispose them toward nicotine addiction.

Page Number and Citation: 242

Explanation and Analysis:

This passage suggests that the influence of nurture on behavior is greatly misunderstood. When analyzing the teenage smoking epidemic in the United States, many critics and researchers have proposed that parents need to do a better job of educating their children about the dangers of smoking, modeling good habits for their offspring. The problem with such a view, Gladwell finds, is that it presupposes that parents’ behavior has a major impact on their children’s behavior. In reality (Gladwell argues), it’s likely that teenagers are more profoundly influenced by the behavior of their peers—other teenagers, many of whom smoke—than by their Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inven

It's not about mimicking adult behavior, which is why teenage smoking is rising at a time when adult smoking is falling. Teenage smoking is about being a teenager, about sharing in the emotional experience and expressive language and rituals of adolescence, which are as impenetrable and irrational to outsiders as the rituals of adolescent suicide in Micronesia.

Page Number and Citation: 242

Explanation and Analysis:

The most serious error of the anti-smoking movement, Gladwell argues, is that it drastically overestimates the influence that adult role models have on children and teenagers. Government officials have allocated tremendous sums of money to educate children about smoking, all based on the premise that teenagers will be receptive to strong adult role models. The sobering reality, however, is that teenagers are likely to imitate other teenagers—entering into a “ritual of adolescence,” as the passage phrases it. In Gladwell’s terminology, attempts to interfere with the contagiousness of teen smoking (i.e., to change the “few” who inspire teenagers to try smoking) Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Ape

What these figures tell us is that experimentation and actual hard-core use are two entirely separate things—that for a drug to be contagious does not automatically mean that it is also sticky. In fact, the sheer number of people who appear to have tried cocaine at least once should tell us that the urge among teens to try something dangerous is pretty nearly universal. This is what teens do. This is how they learn about the world, and most of the time—in 99.1 percent of the cases with cocaine—that experimentation doesn't result in anything bad happening. We have to stop fighting this kind of experimentation.

Page Number and Citation: 251

Explanation and Analysis:

In this chapter, Gladwell criticizes the anti-smoking movement in America for several reasons. This movement has wasted huge resources trying to convince teenagers to pay attention to adult role models—an endeavor that, according to The Tipping Point, is doomed to fail. Moreover, the anti-smoking movement has taken a hysterical approach to the very idea of trying cigarettes. Teenagers have been told that they’re not allowed to experiment with smoking in any way whatsoever—to try even one cigarette is to “go down the road” toward addiction.The problem with such a strategy is that it punishes teenagers for, in a word, being Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaqu

A critic looking at these tightly focused, targeted interventions might dismiss them as Band-Aid solutions. But that phrase should not be considered a term of disparagement. The Band-Aid is an inexpensive, convenient, and remarkably versatile solution to an astonishing array of problems. In their history Band-Aids have probably allowed millions of people to keep working or playing tennis or cooking or walking when they would otherwise have had to stop. The Band-Aid solution is actually the best kind of solution because it involves solving a problem with the minimum amount of effort and time and cost.

Page Number and Citation: 256

Explanation and Analysis:

Gladwell takes a moment to respond to a major criticism of his book: namely, that he’s advocating small-scale simplistic solutions to deep, fundamental problems with society. Solutions of this kind are sometimes termed “Band-Aid” solutions—the implication being that, in lieu of getting to the root of the problem, the solution is too superficial to do any lasting good.In response to this potential criticism, Gladwell turns the criticism on its head, arguing—half-seriously, half-flippantly—that Band-Aids are extremely effective tools for improving people’s health. More seriously, though, Gladwell proposes that so-called Band-Aid solutions are sometimes the best kinds of solutions: the best solution Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis

Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not. With the slightest push—in just the right place—it can be tipped.

Page Number and Citation: 259

Explanation and Analysis:

In the end, Gladwell offers a message that’s both inspirational and cautionary. Throughout his book, he’s described how it’s possible to change the world profoundly by making small, almost imperceptible changes. For the most part, Gladwell doesn’t say that these changes are either good or bad: his role as the author of the book is to describe how trends work and leave his readers to decide how virtuous these trends are.At times, Gladwell’s findings could be interpreted negatively; for example, his analysis of TV advertisements and voting habits suggest that humans are gullible creatures who make major decisions for the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupt

Stickiness Theme Analysis

Stickiness ThemeTracker

Stickiness Quotes in The Tipping Point

Chapter One Quotes

Chapter Three Quotes

Chapter Seven Quotes

Conclusion Quotes