What is more important, the message or the package containing it?

Question

If there were the answer to every problem of this world scribbled on a crumpled piece of paper at the bottom of a land fill, How many people would go searching for it?

If there was the biggest lie in a splendidly bound volume, how many people would believe it?

What has the greater influence, the message or the package?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Another superb question.... I see it much wider than just about advertisement or Bible!!

I grew up believing strongly that content is more important than form.... a person's inner thoughts are more important than the outward behavior..... intention is more important than the apparent action.

Life taught me otherwise. The importance of form or package or the apparent can not be undermined, because after all, every bit of our knowledge and experience is based on external inputs to begin with. The initial screening is always based on the external impact. However, the form or package can not substitute for the contents.... because, in the ultimate analysis, it is the gist, the content, the inner truth, the intent, that really counts.

In conclusion, therefore, I would say that a good package does not matter if the content itself is no good, but if the content is good, the package too must be made attractive for the good content to get truly and fully justified.

Answer 2

Well the message is obviously more important.

It is just that a good message is usually presented very well.

If I knew for certain that such a paper were at the bottom of a landfill, I would not hesitate to go get it.

If I knew for certain that the book contained a lie, I would read it to gain a better understanding of the world and then go look for something true.

Answer 3

In other words, is truth more important than persuasion?

Modern psychology (and marketing) tells us that both are important, but that without packaging, the message is obsolete. You wouldn't buy the world's greatest computer if it was being sold in a brown paper bag for $10. Human psychology would lead you to buy the one in the fancy box, for $2500.

You could know Life's great Truth, but unless you knew how to persuade others and produce conviction, your message would be lost.

Think of a court of law.

The truth is not important, only the convincing.

Answer 4

Both should always be considered, when possible. Certain areas and disciplines tend to value content over package, or form (academia, government), and others to value form over content (business, media). And some necessarily require both (art).

Yet this is something of a false dichotomy because we cannot have one without the other. A piece of writing cannot come into existence without both form (shape, package) and content (intention of the author, meaning). Even poetry - as much as it appears not to - has content. Even a government document has form.

Anyway, for more on the form vs. content debate with regard to writing, read Richard Lanham's _Analyzing Prose_ (http://www.amazon.com/Analyzing-Prose-Richard-Lanham/dp/0826461905/ref=sr_1_1/002-4203494-6797618?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182932634&sr=8-1 ).

Answer 5

Excellent question.

People are often fooled by the packaging. The message is what's important, but I don't know too many people that would sift through garbage to find the truth. They'd be more inclined to reach for the lie that's written in gold...

Packaging is what sells. Marketers use it to sell us things we don't really need & which may even destroy us.

We know that "all that glitters is not gold" & that "you can't judge a book by its cover" but we are visual creatures & we naturally gravitate toward a beautiful lie rather than the ugly truth...

Answer 6

For 99% persons, the package is more important. For 1% the message is more important.It depends on one's own attitude, eagerness and appreciation of the message. If one realises the importance of the answer, he would strive to go searching till the bottom of the land fill. Otherwise who bothers to take that trouble.

Answer 7

They are both equally important and rely on each other. The message could not be sent in the post office without the package and the package would have no significant use without it containing the message.

Answer 8

Good thought going on there...always nice to see!

I would have to say...MPO, of course, that there are truths to be had no matter where they come from...and there are those who will/will not recognize them, no matter how they are presented...personally, I go for the message, take what rings true, and leave the rest...overpackaging upsets my green side (LOL)

Answer 9

if somebody purchaded a team of gold in ghana and introduced it decrease back to the states with them might they be bodily held at customs in manhattan untill they paid taxes on the gold they offered and already paid taxes on in Ghana?

Answer 10

It all depends on the readers!... their education and how well intentioned they are! So... Education IS the key.