Project Rethink

If you haven’t seen Susan Boyle on the British reality TV show, “Britain’s Got Talent”, then over the last week you’ve probably successfully avoided social media sites, the news, or the Internet in general.

This single video has been on Youtube for less than a week, and has already surpassed 26 million views.

Why is this story so catchy? Why do people want to watch it over, and over.

One of my favorite books in the last couple of years is Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath.  This book describes 6 characteristics of a sticky story:

• Simplicity
• Unexpectedness
• Concreteness
• Credibility
• Emotional
• Stories

Susan Boyle’s story was, in every way, simple, unexpected, concrete, credible and emotional.