General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What's wrong with our 'messaging'? [View all]wnylib
(21,146 posts)Last edited Thu Nov 25, 2021, 10:26 PM - Edit history (1)
We have excellent policies, programs, and agendas. I believe that our messaging tends to focus too much on the intellectual aspects of them. Good messaging appeals to how people feel. That does not mean making cheap emotional appeals with empty slogans. It certainly does not mean appealing to people's baser emotions as RWers do.
Successful messaging addresses how people FEEL about issues that matter to them. The message connects with the people and with what we have done, are doing, or will do about those issues.
Some memorable, successful messaging examples:
"There is nothing to fear but fear itself." Concise, meaningful, and reassuring. People were terrified. Banks had failed. People lost savings, jobs, and homes. The future was grim and uncertain. But panicking made things worse. FDR could have said, "Don't get carried away with your fears. Keep your head and think your way through this." Instead he addressed their fear in memorable phrasing that gave them hope. He said "we" not "you." The unspoken message in his words was, "We're in this together. If we stop being afraid and put our heads together on it, we will come through." But that sentence would not have hit home as well as the one he used.
JFK - a master at messaging. We felt his death so deeply and personally because he connected with people and inspired them. "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." The message was, "In a democracy, the people ARE the government. Get involved because you are important and have something to offer." He inspired people to care, to act, to feel part of government. He gave them ways to do it, e.g. the Peace Corps, which fit nicely with his larger agenda of international PR for the US to woo 3rd world countries away from communist influence. He messaged and connected constantly through press conferences and humanized himself by letting the public get glimpses of him with his family.
Good messaging is like good poetry. It conveys meaning, purpose, and inspiration by appealing to the senses, mind, and emotions via phrasing, visual imagery, and sincere concerns, goals, and achievements.