Why Is It Called a ‘Red Herring’?
It's a common ploy in marketing, politics, and from mystery writers: Toss out something distracting or even misleading to shift the audience's focus from the main issue at hand. For instance, a governor might tout lower unemployment rates to draw attention away from a recent state tax hike. The distraction
is known as a red herring. Mystery aficionados will also be familiar with this concept, as red herrings appear as plot devices in countless books and films, from the carefully planted red kimono in Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express to the many circumstances distracting the audience from discovering...
