Anybody watch Frontline tonight?

[napi21]

It's 1 1/2 hrs long, but the last 1/2 hr they had a discussion of how marketing consultants sell a candidate.

For instance, Frank luntz had the following ideas:

Change the name of Estate Tax to the Death tax. It made 90% of the country go from being for a tax to being against it.

Change Global Warming to Climate Change. Clumate change just sounds like a natural thing, where Global warming is scarey and everyone wants to fight it.

Change the words Tax Cut to Tax Relief. It makes it sound like you're easing people's pain.

The whole show is good, and explaines how advertizers make us WANT to buy their products! We are all being manipulated every second of every day!

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Yep we are

and some of us have cut our ties to advertisiers and teevee

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. Not me.

I don't have a TV. I recommend the experience.

[napi21]

7. You need to watch the Frontline show online.

It will be available on Fri 11/2.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/

You're right, a lot of it speaks to TV, but there's quite a bit that doesn't too.

[Avalux]

3. Only way to stop it is to ignore it

turn off the TV. Read a book. Educate your children.

[intheflow]

4. Starting 11/12/04, free download of show at the Frontline website.

Just on now in Denver. A bit scary.

But good to know how they think.

[napi21]

6. Here's the link to the Frontline show "The persuaders"

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/

It starts on Fri 11/2. It really is quite interesting!

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

5. Thanks for the heads up

I'm out west and will look for it.

[Florida_Geek]

8. The Repugs are very good at picking names for their shit

DEATH TAX...... sells,,,,, No Tax for Rich Brats... loser.....

:evilgrin:

[Robert Oak]

9. Interesting they do a show on proganda (marketing, PR)

right after the election.

I'm thrilled they are mentioning the perversion of the English language
by the radical right.

You do not ignore it, you call it out, relabel the term to reflect
the truth..

what the radical right does is term things to sound nice and often
opposite of the bills intent.

Right on.

Now, if Frontline had an audience larger than 500k or whatever it is.
:)

[idiosyncratic]

10. Its coming on here in six minutes. I never miss Frontline. eom

[juliagoolia]

11. Well Damn it folks.. Our worst enemy is Hate Radio

And we need to call it that..
Daily every where all over the world on bumperstickers on emails in conversations..

Hate Radio is ungodly
Hate Radio is unchristian
Hate Radio is unamerican
Hate Radio is a-moral
Hate radio is just Hate
Hate radio speaks to Haters
Hate radio is Harmful to kids
Hate radio teaches kids ugly things
Hate radio is rated x for content
Hate Radio is anything digusting you can think of

What ever it is, it is always HATE RADIO

This is our biggest enemy and we need to call it what it is.

[bloom]

12. Limbaugh, etc. probably gets some of his ideas from some of the people

on the Frontline show.


For instance - one of the guys - Frank Luntz - helped devise the idea of making the confederate flag on issue in 2001 - getting a bunch of people riled up and involved that would not normally be. Limbaugh probably helped get the concept out.

"A corporate consultant, pollster and political consultant to Republicans, Luntz's specialty is testing language and finding words that will help his clients sell their product or turn public opinion on an issue or a candidate. In this interview, he tells FRONTLINE what it takes to communicate a message effectively, shares some of the advice that he gives clients, and explains why his testing and field research seeks words that move people to act on an emotional level: "It's all emotion. But there's nothing wrong with emotion. When we are in love, we are not rational; we are emotional. When we are on vacation, we are not rational; we are emotional. When we are happy, we are not . In fact, in more cases than not, when we are rational, we're actually unhappy. Emotion is good; passion is good. Being into what we're into, provided that it's a healthy pursuit, it's a good thing." This interview was conducted on Dec. 15, 2003."

[RevCheesehead]

15. I thought that segment was the most powerful of the show.

For all the hate spewed at Frank Luntz after the debates for his "focus groups," ya gotta admit that the guy DOES know his stuff.

I think people here have a hard time differentiating between the content of the message and the delivery of the message.

Simply put, the repubs put their stuff in a prettier package. Hell, they could dress up dog poop and put a bow on it, and someone would say, "I want that!"

[Maraya1969]

22. I like this one

They think of the American are safer… not. Right? You have to say why they're not safer. You don't just say they're not safer. They say you have to say, "More terrorists have been created by the war in Iraq than were eradicated in, you know, in Afghanistan."

You have to say that things are more dangerous now.


We have to remind people that there were only a few terrorists before 9/11 and since Bush declared war on Iraq there are thousands. There was no "War on Terror" until we went to Iraq, (as I remember it)

[napi21]

13. You're right about hate radio, but they also use the "words".

The only way to quiet it down that I know of is opposite radio like AAR, and a lot of the other radio I can only get online here.

At least AAR is on a lot of local stations in the country, and I think it's giving Limbaugh and Boortz a run for it!

It's only 7 months d, nd it seems to be doing pretty well! Sad it took the liberal side so many years to find the dial. The pugs got a hell of a head start!!!

[For PaisAn]

14. George Lakoff wrote a book and has a DVD on this

This should be required reading for everyone at the DNC. This is vritical and key to turning things around.

http://www.alternet.org/story/19511

A message is only as effective as the frame in which it is delivered. Linguist George Lakoff explains what this means in terms of current political discourse.

...snip...
Brancaccio: At what point do we, as voters, notice that being used on us? Whether or not we're conservative, whether or not we're liberal?

Lakoff: Only when it's framed in the right way.

A lot of liberals believe that the facts will set you free. It's in our inheritance from the enlightenment. Where, in the enlightenment that everybody is a rational person, all you have to do is just tell them the facts, they'll reason to the right conclusion. It's false.

And the Republicans have learned that it's false. They've set up a frame, they set up a narrative, and they set it up in terms of their values. And they get it as part of normal, everyday language and normal everyday thought.

Once they've done that, the facts are irrelevant unless the Democrats can learn to re-frame the issues from their point of view, and then make the facts fit other frames.
...snip...

[Gelliebeans]

16. I saw him interviewed he had

some very interesting ideas

[For PaisAn]

17. He's got the method and the message

Dems just have to implement it.

If not we can just forget it all.

[Fleurs du Mal]

18. Every progressive should read...

Lakoff's Don't Think of an Elephant which is all about framing the message.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

20. Thanks for that link - here's another good one

http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/people/lakoff

Contains articles and downloadable files of Lakoff's writings. Great resource!

The whole site is fascinating. From their "About Us" page:

The Rockridge Institute is a group of distinguished scholars and researchers working to help achieve a just, democratic, environmentally sustainable, and humane society. We are a non-partisan 501(c)(3) research and educational institution, and do not endorse or oppose any particular candidate or party.

Rockridge works to:

* Reframe the terms of political debate to make a progressive moral vision more persuasive and influential.

* Develop public policies that will bring us closer to a society that embodies this vision.

* Unify progressives around a shared political program and a common moral language.

* Build links with activists, policymakers, the media, academics, and other key groups to influence the public agenda.

http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

19. The term "branding" always makes me giggle.

It used to be the goods and services that got branded. Now it's us, the consumers, whose hides are marked with the white-hot irons of the brands we buy.

I urge anyone interested in reframing the issues and remarketing the party to watch this program.

[Polemicist]

21. GOP Ad types...

Go back to Halderman and Erlichman under Nixon, two California Ad men who got Nixon elected.

The Democratic party must re-frame the debate on every subject in order to win. This Frontline show and Lakoff's book and DVD must be required reading for our effort going forward.

It was painful to watch Kerry struggle with the frames that Rove put him in and that won the election for Bush. Kerry's talking in Senate speech instead of short frames for important subjects.

Death tax. Do not ever directly respond to a question about the death tax. First re-frame the topic. Immediately say, "oh, you mean the wealth tax". Not death, not inheritance, not estate. It's the "wealth tax".

The tax is only applied to estates and inheritances of the wealthy. This changes the frame from one of us defending taxing the average dead guy, to them defending allowing accumulated inherited wealth and power to pervert our American system.

The party that has the mainstream media using their version of that frame, will win the debate on estate taxes.

The newest GOP frame is "Fair Tax" for a flat tax or a National Sales tax. I reverse that to "Tax Fairness" and go into the regressive v. progressive tax discussion.

[bloom]

23. Maybe we should call the "flat tax" the "people tax"

I like the "wealth tax" idea.


P.S. Welcome to DU!!

[idiosyncratic]

27. Great post . . . and Welcom to DU!!

:hi: :bounce: :hi: :bounce: :hi:

[jefferson_dem]

24. Don't forget so-called "partial birth abortion".

Which is really just a late-term medically necessary abortion procedure.

[MsUSA]

25. Yes, very, very interesting, and the next two weeks look very

informative also. Next week it's Mall-Wart, and in 2 weeks, it's about the credit card industry. Frontline always has excellent and informative programs.

[Killarney]

26. It's true. The GOP has stolen the language and we need to

beat them at this game.

One example is to use "anti-choice" instead of "pro-life".