Saw a billboard on 35W: "Don't Vote"

[Nobody]

I had to look twice to make sure I wasn't seeing things. Red white and blue with huge letters.

DON'T VOTE

Anybody know WTF?

[mairceridwen]

1. wow.

i have no idea

[Cerridwen]

2. Er, reverse psychology? n/t

[frylock]

3. did you have your "special" glasses on?

[Dickie Flatt]

4. Story: In the end, billboards will have a "positive message"

Story: The billboards are owned by Clear Channel Communications Inc. Lee Ann Muller, the company's general manager for outdoor advertising in Minnesota, wouldn't say who is paying for the billboards, but said it's a "teaser" campaign and its full meaning would become clear soon.

"I made the judgment call that the end of the campaign has value and a positive message, positive benefits for the community," Muller said.

Muller said the sponsor, which is paying about $60,000 to have the billboards up for a month, is not advertising a product. She said the "reveal," when new billboards replace the "Don't vote" message, would be Oct. 11.

I saw one of these right by Cheapo on Snelling.

[jean]

5. "Don't Vote" makes us think "Vote!" This is a powerful framing tactic

I wonder how many thousands of people see it each day.

Take a look at what Prof George Lakoff says about this exact tactic -
(Howard Dean says George Lakoff is “one of the most influential political thinkers of the progressive movement”)


Framing 101 - How to take back Public Discourse

When I teach the study of framing at Berkeley, in Cognitive
Science 101, the first thing I do is I give my students an exercise.

The exercise is: Don’t think of an elephant! Whatever you do, do
not think of an elephant. I’ve never found a student who is able to
do this. Every word, like elephant, evokes a frame, which can be an
image or other kinds of knowledge: Elephants are large, have
floppy ears and a trunk, are associated with circuses, and so on.
The word is defined relative to that frame. When we negate a
frame, we evoke the frame.

Richard Nixon found that out the hard way. While under pressure
to resign during the Watergate scandal, Nixon addressed the
nation on TV. He stood before the nation and said, “I am not a
crook.” And everybody thought about him as a crook.

from:
"don't think of an elephant!Know your values and Frame the Debate"
by Prof. George Lakoff

You can see a long excerpt from this short book here:
http://www.chelseagreen.com/images/DTE_Sampler.pdf

[Viking12]

7. The rhetorical term is parleipsis....

if used wisely it can be a very persuasive device. "Why did the children pour molasses on the the cat, when the one thing we told them they must not do was pour molasses on the cat?"

[pauliedangerously]

12. Exactly!!!

Just got my copy of Lakoff's book last week...good read, especially the last two chapters.

[LTR]

6. Here's the board

From this site:

http://www.wendywilde.com/

[bvar22]

8. If these boards are owned by ...

..."Clear Channel Communications Inc." as cited above, then Something EVIL this way comes!

[Mockingbird]

9. Don't Vote

It is supposed to be explained next week - advertising ploy or public service?

[grannylib]

10. With Clear Channel as the owners, my money is on some filthy tactic

that will wind up being pro-RePuke
(and by extension, pro-war, pro-death, pro-deficit, pro-government-intervention-in-areas-where-it's-none-of-their-goddam-business)

[pauliedangerously]

11. There's another one in NE MPLS...

It's facing north on Central Avenue and Hennepin.

I'm thinking reverse psychology.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

13. And another one, facing north, on Robert St. south of downtown St. Paul

It's about a mile or two from downdown.

[Love Bug]

14. There's one on 110 just west of Robert St

[LTR]

15. Oh, that "Don't Vote" billboard?

Some silly ad campaign for KDWB's morning guy, Dave Ryan. Yes, his show is as lame as his outfit.

On the plus side, it's a voter registration campaign being done by the station.

http://www.kdwb.com/promotions/dontvotedave/index.html

Don't worry about the Clear Channel-owned bias. KDWB's a top 40 station, meaning their target audience consists mostly of younger people, women and minorities. Not real GOP-leaning demographics. It's just a station promotion.