It's a delusion: you can't reach an old dog with nude pics

WHEN I released my new book, The Big Tilt, almost three weeks ago I thought I knew exactly where the media's interest would lie.

WHEN I released my new book, The Big Tilt, almost three weeks ago I thought I knew exactly where the media's interest would lie.

This was going to be pitched as a stoush between myself arguing for a big Australia and Dick Smith, whose new book, released more or less at the same time, was arguing for a small Australia.

And for the first week that's pretty much how it panned out. Dick and I trailed each other around the capital cities slogging it out on radio, in print and on television.

But then something happened that public relations and marketing people can only dream of. Out of the US came Weinergate.

For those who have been living under a rock for the past 10 days, this is the story of US Democrat congressman Anthony Weiner, who was caught sending inappropriate photographs to women (other than his wife) via Twitter.

A syndicated columnist for the Chicago Tribune, Clarence Page, made a connection late last week between Weiner's motives as a middle-aged man looking for affection, affirmation or whatever, and a single chapter heading from a new book released by "Australian demographer Bernard Salt" that tells of a terrible malady known as hotness delusion syndrome.

This is the notion that there are 15 per cent more single women than single men at the age of 44, and as a consequence men at this time in life get to thinking they are more attractive than they really are -- indeed, it might be said all 44-year-old men suffer from hotness delusion syndrome.

Whereas you and I might see a 44-year-old male as a tad paunchy and perhaps balding, that's not what he sees in the mirror. He sees a scalp that is hirsute and a body that is trim, taut and, so he is told by his many suitors, terrific.

Careful, ladies, this man's a tiger. Grrrr.

In fact, what 44-year-old single men should do when they look in the mirror is deflate their hotness by 15 per cent to allow for the proportion by which single women outnumber single men. After all, it is not possible to get an accurate market reading on attractiveness unless there is an equal number of singles in each age group.

And from there the hotness delusion syndrome and The Big Tilt has pretty much gone viral in the US. It has even surfaced in Hollywood. A few days later, on the US National Public Radio network, which is a bit like our ABC, there was a very funny discussion hosted by playwright and Chicago Tribune columnist Pete Sagal about the hotness delusion syndrome.

Meanwhile, the book sales, I might add, are going gangbusters, according to the publisher.

After his discussion, Sagal's next interview was with Kevin Bacon, who was spruiking his new movie X-Men: First Class. Bacon must have been listening to the discussion, because he immediately claimed that as a young man he, too, suffered from the hotness delusion syndrome.

In the mid-1990s, a trivia game came to prominence called Six Degrees of Separation from Kevin Bacon, the object of which was to find ways to connect anyone with the actor. I am now claiming one degree of separation from him because he cited a chapter of my book on national radio in the US.

Top that, Dick Smith.

There are several lessons from all of this, not the least of which is for Anthony Weiner. But perhaps the most important point is the power and the interconnectedness of social media. On this occasion, these forces worked in my favour. This is where PR people get excited. Imagine if you could construct events to coincide with a product launch so that the product enters the talkback and opinion columns in a positive way.

Twitter was central to the rise and fall of Anthony Weiner in so many ways. The internet and Google can connect an obscure book released in Australia with a rising, rollicking socio-political event unfolding in the US.

Within days the two are joined and then emerge as talking points on radio and in print. And, yes, I did get calls to speak on the hotness delusion syndrome on US radio.

The Big Tilt is my fourth book on popular demographics released over a decade. Not only has the impact of this book and some of its key ideas surfaced in the US within days -- admittedly helped by Anthony Weiner's exploits -- but it also surfaced in the media within hours in New Zealand and within 24 hours in news outlets in Britain, India and South Africa. There is still a strong cultural bond between commonwealth nations that is evident in news reporting.

The other thing I have noticed about this book in comparison with my previous publications is the email requests for it to be issued as an eBook. If I do write another book in, say, three to four years, I think it will most probably be published in an electronic format. Although I must say my publisher is right now scampering to get The Big Tilt available in an electronic version to meet the US interest.

In this regard it would be most helpful if Anthony Weiner could prolong the media circus for about another week. Then again, I suspect we won't have to wait too long before yet another middle-aged male falls victim to the scourge that is hotness delusion syndrome.

KPMG Partner Bernard Salt is the author of The Big Tilt; twitter.com/bernardsalt; [e-mail]