How should marketers handle the Mandela Effect?
Have you heard of the Mandela Effect? It’s when the public’s memory of a thing or event is different than the reality. It was named the Mandela Effect because of the number of people who insisted he died in prison in the 1980s, even though he lived until 2013. (Follow this link for a page that gives more great examples: What’s your memory of Curious George’s tail? And what’s the name of that peanut butter that starts with a J?
My recent experience of the Mandela Effect
There are a couple of little luxury soap stores in my town. It’s actually a chain, but it doesn’t look or feel like a chain. It feels like one of those shops established by a few individuals who love what they do and give it their all.
The name? Bluff City Soap. Or so I thought. A few days ago, I was looking at the sign and wondering what happened to the L. I finally had to accept that I had been Mandela’d. The name of the company is Buff City Soap.
Before I go into what something like this means for marketers, let me give some background. I live just outside of Memphis, TN — the “Bluff City” here— situated on the banks of the Mississippi River. There’s Bluff City everything. But not, apparently, Bluff City Soap.
