Fall 2026 · Week 04

The Sales Pitch

A short game first.

Last week's task

Who was behind it?

The video, the product page, the post: who ran it? Did you write it down?

A short game

Three products. The questions are on your card. Ninety seconds each.

Write a number for every question.
Write how sure you are: 50 / 70 / 90.
Answer alone. Do not look at your neighbour's card.

Question 1 · 90 seconds

Earbuds

The most I would pay:    $ __
How sure:                50 / 70 / 90

Question 2 · 90 seconds

A snack bar

Healthy, 1 to 10:        __
Buy it for lunch:        yes / no
How sure:                50 / 70 / 90

Question 3 · 90 seconds

Popcorn

I choose:                __
I pay:                   $ __
How sure:                50 / 70 / 90

What you wrote

                      Card 1     Card 2
Earbuds, average      $ __       $ __
Snack bar, average    __ /10     __ /10
Chose large           __ /3      __ /3

Why two columns?

There were two cards.

Same earbuds. One card said "normally $149", the other "normally $39".
Same bar. One card said "90% fat-free", the other "contains 10% fat".
Same popcorn. One card had a $6.50 medium that nobody wanted.

We did not change the products. We changed one number, one word, and one option.

A study

How tall is the tallest redwood?

Asked "more or less than 180 ft?"      guessed  282 ft
Asked "more or less than 1,200 ft?"    guessed  844 ft

The real answer: about 380 ft

Two more

Beef and magazines

The same ground beef, labelled "75% lean" for some people and "25% fat" for others. The lean label tasted better. After they had eaten it, the gap shrank, but it did not disappear.

A magazine offered web-only for $59, print-only for $125, and web plus print for $125. Most people took web plus print. Remove print-only, which nobody chose, and most people took web-only.

Nobody chose the decoy. It still did its job.

Three names

Anchor · Frame · Decoy

Anchor: the first number you see pulls every number you think of after it. The $149 and the 1,200 feet.

Frame: the same fact in other words feels like a different fact. 90% fat-free is 10% fat.

Decoy: an option nobody wants, put there to make another option look good. The $6.50 medium.

None of them lied. Every word on your card was true.

Three moves

From now on

Cover the first number. Then decide what you would pay.
Say the other half. 90% fat-free: so, 10% fat.
Remove the option nobody wants. Then choose again.

The seller's toolkit · 1–4

Eight tricks

Trick	Looks like	Ask
1 Anchor	"Was $149"	Cover it. What would you pay?
2 Frame	"90% fat-free"	Say the other half: 10% fat.
3 Decoy	the $6.50 medium	Remove it. Still want large?
4 Scarcity	"Only 3 left!"	Who counted? Says who?

The seller's toolkit · 5–8

Eight tricks

Trick	Looks like	Ask
5 Everyone	"1 million sold"	Out of how many?
6 Experts	"Clinically proven"	Which experts? Who paid them?
7 More!	"30% more"	More than what?
8 The graph	an axis starting at 90	Where does the axis start?

Card B has all eight. You will need them in five minutes.

One case

Two months' salary

1938: a diamond company hires an advertising agency. The job is not to sell a brand but to make a diamond ring the only way to propose.

1947: a copywriter working late writes "A diamond is forever".

The 1980s: the ads tell you how much to spend. Two months' salary.

Millions of people still use that number. The company that sells diamonds chose it. An anchor can be planted in a whole country.

Back to Week 1

Whose number was it?

In Week 1 your 90% was worth 40%. Today you found out something worse: the number you were sure of may not even have been yours.

Somebody wrote it on the card before you picked up the pencil.

Before you say how sure you are, ask where your number came from.

Back to Weeks 2 and 3

You knew the seller

Week 2: an ad shows you only the supporting examples. The counterexample is the price next door.

Week 3: you knew who was speaking and what they wanted. It was a sales card. It moved your number anyway.

Knowing the seller is not enough. You also have to know the trick.

And AI

Eight tricks in two seconds

Ask an AI to sell you a pencil and it uses all eight. It learned them from a billion ads.

Put a number in your question and its answer leans toward your number. It can be anchored too.

In Week 7 you will grade an essay it wrote. Confident tone, precise-sounding numbers, "studies show": the same toolkit.

Now you be the seller.

The sales pitch · how to play

Sell something worthless

Pairs. Pick a product card.
Make a poster: a name, a price, and at least four tricks from card B. At most six.
Write the tricks you used on the back of card B. Keep it secret.
Ten minutes to build. Sixty seconds to pitch.

Demo · 60 seconds

A pencil

"Normally $12. Today $4."              anchor
"Never needs charging."                frame
"97% of writers prefer wood."          everyone
"Only five left."                      scarcity
"Teacher approved."                    experts

Scoring

Per poster · points go to your pair

Who	What	Points
The other pairs	Trick named correctly	+1
The other pairs	Trick named but not used	−1
Sellers	Trick nobody caught	+1
Everyone	"Would you buy it?"	not scored

Write "would you buy it?" first, from the gut. Then hunt: "I spotted nothing" costs 0, a wrong guess costs 1.

Build · 10 minutes

Go

A name. A price. Four tricks.

Pitch · 60 s · See through · 90 s

Three posters

Sellers: sixty seconds. Sell.
The other pairs, on card C: would you buy it, yes or no, from the gut. Then every trick you spot.
Sellers reveal their trick list. Score.

Three posters

What you did

Tricks used:           __
Tricks caught:         __
False alarms:          __
"I would buy it":      __ / 12

Twenty minutes ago the same tricks moved your numbers, and nobody noticed anything.

If there is time · 3 minutes

The honest version

Take another pair's poster. Cover the anchor. Say the other half. Remove the decoy. Write what is left.

A pencil. $4. Writes. Would you still buy it?

Before the names, after the names

Before:   three tricks, nobody noticed      0 / 6
After:    tricks caught                   __ / __

The tricks did not change. You learned their names. A trick with a name is half as strong.

The rule

Read it together

Everyday version: cover the first number. Say the other half. Remove the option nobody wants.

This week: find one real pitch, a shop sign, an app pop-up, a video ad. Name its tricks and write the honest version in the notebook. Or try it on an AI: ask it to sell you a pencil, then ask it to list the tricks it used, and write the honest version.

Before you decide, ask: compared to what?

Same as last week

The calibration scoreboard

Confidence	Correct	Wrong
50%	+1	0
70%	+2	−2
90%	+3	−6

Five questions. Pick A, B, or C, and write how sure you are.

1 / 5

Same snack bar. Which label makes people rate it healthier?

A"90% fat-free"
B"Contains 10% fat"
CNo difference