AchIEvING UlTImATE SUccESS IN PERSUASION: STORYSEllING IS BElIEvING

Chapter 15

ACgvhIe In UltIMAte

sUCCess In PeRsUAsIon:

STORYSELLING IS BELIEVING

By niCK nanton & Jw DiCKs

So, in January of 1967, Paul McCartney, then-member of the Beatles
(we assume you’ve heard of them), was in a car accident in London.
A brief rumor gripped England that Sir Paul was actually killed in the
crash. The next month, the official Beatles “fanzine” verified that Mc-
Cartney was, in fact, alive and well, and life went on as normal - for a
while, anyway.

A little over two years later, however, in the autumn of 1969, the stress
of superstardom had pulled apart the world’s most popular rock group.
The Beatles were splitting up, and Paul was spending more and more
time in Scotland with his new wife Linda, out of the public eye.

And that’s when the weirdness really kicked in. With Paul in hiding
for the first time since he and his mates became superstars, the student
newspaper at Drake University in Iowa printed a story that seriously
asked the question, “Is Beatle Paul McCartney Dead?” The rumor had
grown in strength on the campus – and suddenly the students were hunt-
ing down clues that had supposedly been placed on the group’s most
recent albums. For instance, when part of the “Revolution #9” track on
The White Album was played backwards, a voice said, “Turn me on,