Gladwell outlines a three-point plan for engineering your own social epidemic in The Tipping Point. First, do not waste time marketing your idea to the masses: focus your energies on the trendsetters, the socially promiscuous and those with the power to influence... Tweaking your idea or product to make it more infectious or "sticky" (Gladwell's preference) is the second step.
The final chapter, which outlines Gladwell's own master plan to engineer a massive reduction in cigarette smoking, quite frankly scared me with its Brave New Worldesque cocktail of drug therapy and informational warfare. This is the social Darwinism of ideas--ideational eugenics. And if it works, it will provide the doctors of spin and hype with a very dangerous new toy.
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