Been binge watching the Fallout series and there’s this scene that made me pause mid bite of my sandwich.
I mean it was a damn good sandwich and I rarely stop when I get going…
Ella Purnell’s character Lucy.
This impossibly optimistic vault dweller…
…emerges from her underground paradise into the wasteland above. She’s been raised on corporate propaganda about how Vault-Tec saved humanity, how they’re the good guys, how everything they did was for the greater good.
Then she discovers the truth.
Vault-Tec didn’t just profit from the nuclear apocalypse (I mean of course they did lol – the videogame was pretty epic tbh)
They clearly helped cause it. They sold people safety while engineering the very disaster they claimed to protect against.
This is direct response copywriting in its purest, most terrifying form.
Think about it. Vault-Tec identified a deep human fear (nuclear annihilation), positioned themselves as the solution (underground safety), created scarcity (limited vault spaces), and drove people to take immediate action (buy now or die horribly)
Direct response 101.
Classic direct response framework. Problem, agitation, solution, urgency.
Except they were literally creating the problem they were selling the solution to.
Now before you think I’m about to launch into some ethical copywriting sermon.
I’m not.
I’m not gonna do the dance between good versus evil. I mean we’re adults. I’m sure we can think about this logically.
This is about understanding the raw psychological power of what we do.
Every piece of effective copy manipulates emotion to drive action.
The question isn’t whether you’re influencing people. Clearly you are to a degree.
The question is whether you’re using that influence to genuinely help them or just to help yourself.
Vault-Tec’s copywriters were probably the best in the business. They convinced people to abandon everything they knew for the promise of safety. They made underground bunkers seem desirable. They turned fear into profit with surgical precision.
They understood something most marketers miss.
People don’t buy products. They buy feelings. Safety, status, hope, relief, excitement, belonging…
You might think the vault dwellers were buying real estate. Except they were buying peace of mind.
The promise that someone smarter than them had thought through all the scary possibilities and created a solution.
Sound familiar?
Every successful product launch, every high converting sales page, every email that drives action is tapping into the same psychological triggers Vault-Tec used. We identify pain points, amplify the consequences of inaction, then present our solution as the obvious path to relief.
Pretty boring if you look at it from this point of view, but we’re humans and this is how we operate on a biologically and fundamental level.
If you’re selling weight loss programs that don’t work, you’re Vault-Tec. If you’re selling business courses filled with outdated tactics, you’re Vault-Tec. If you’re promising results you can’t deliver just to make the sale, you’re fucking Vault-Tec.
Then you’re just using powerful tools for good instead of evil.
The techniques work either way. The psychology is the same whether you’re saving people or screwing them. The only difference is your intention and your delivery.
Lucy’s vault kept her safe for 200 years. The problem wasn’t the marketing. It was that Vault-Tec had ulterior motives they never disclosed.
Your copy can be just as persuasive without hiding the true agenda.
If you look around the online space right now from any of the creative industries you might be in. AI is being hyped and oversold and told it’s gonna take our jerrrbs.
It’s not.
Don’t let Vault-Tec mess with your head.
If you got good stuff. Write well. Give people the information they need and give them the opportunity to buy.
It really is that simple.
Stephen Walker.