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Images and Political Spin


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2012 Apr 1, 8:47am   3,931 views  9 comments

by Patrick   ➕follow (55)   💰tip   ignore  

I'm reading a book about political spin, called "Un-spun":

http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/unspun/

The book explains how images and stereotypes are much simpler and faster than reasoning, so I was wondering if this could be applied to our need for a national health insurance option.

Perhaps we need an advertising campaign with clearly right-wing images, like a big flag, a cross, soldiers, etc coupled with a simple plea that everyone be allowed to pay in to Medicare at cost, in the name of America, Jesus, and our gallant soldiers.

Forget reasoning. Just go for the gut.

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1   gardener1   2012 Apr 1, 7:47pm  

It's called 'Branding'.

I was lectured about branding myself, in an audit with the unemployment people last month. It's on their form inventory "Do you have a brand?"

Branding also just happened to my local bus stop. It had been just a 3 sided bus shelter where a dozen people could fit to wait for the bus. But no more. The new bus stop now has red stripes and a snazzy red logo 'Rapid Ride' and no shelter and only one tiny seat. But it is red and branded and Rapid Ride! Not just a bus any more.

So your idea is right on the money with branding. It's all the rage. Nobody has an attention span of more than 3 seconds anymore, so the message needs to be one word attached to one image so that people will make the subliminal braincell connection before their attention span expires.

Branding Health insurance, let's see....
Image of a white uniformed big breasted blonde nurse in stiletto heels, waving a hypodermic needle and the caption "Health!"

2   mdovell   2012 Apr 2, 12:34am  

Flags could be left or right...then again here's a uk take
http://www.youtube.com/embed/uEx5G-GOS1k

3   Dan8267   2012 Apr 2, 2:33pm  


Forget reasoning. Just go for the gut.

Yep, I agree. Run those commercials in the red state and let the blue states read up about the real issues online.

4   Dan8267   2012 Apr 2, 2:34pm  

The more I look at conservative voters, the more I realize that Steven Colbert's character is right on the money.

5   bdrasin   2012 Apr 3, 5:07am  


I'm reading a book about political spin, called "Un-spun":

http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/unspun/

The book explains how images and stereotypes are much simpler and faster than reasoning, so I was wondering if this could be applied to our need for a national health insurance option.

Good book. You might also like "Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking"
http://www.amazon.com/Blink-The-Power-Thinking-Without/dp/0316172324

There is a long section in the book about Warren Harding; basically that he was lazy and incurious (although probably not stupid) but that he had a look and presence that so perfectly fitted the popular image of what a president should be like that no one could get past it.
It made me think of George W Bush - his look and speaking style fit the Texas-tough-guy, alpha male, "gunslinger" motif so well that it took 1/2 the country until 2005 to figure out that he was in fact a dimwitted boob.

6   curious2   2012 Apr 7, 2:53pm  

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7   elliemae   2012 Apr 8, 1:14am  

We definitely need to do better than the VA, if we're going to discuss universal healthcare. There is a wait to be seen, the system is paperwork-laden and the facilities are poorly maintained.

curious2 says

BTW, GW Bush graduated from Harvard and Yale. His policies were dreadful for America, but fantastic for his friends and family. It's funny to hear Democrats call him dimwitted, when in reality he's a two-term president and a multi-millionaire who lives in a fine house while we lament the cost of housing.

He may be smart, but then again he may have skated through his education with the help of daddy's money. He's a manipulative, poorly-spoken elitist from a political dynasty. His co-president, dick cheney, is also an elitist who politically and publicly abandoned homosexuals, yet supported his daughter (just not other people's daughters & sons). Of course he lives in a fine house, daddy's money & influence ensured that no matter what stupid-ass things he did, he'd never have to walk among the rest of us.

And let us not forget that he left us with the worst economy of our times, implemented the bailouts and orchestrated a raping of the public like hasn't been seen during our lifetimes. He created a war to detract from his role & handling of 9/11. Hopefully he'll go down in history as the worst president ever, because I can't imaging the damage that an even worse president might unleash upon us all.

8   curious2   2012 Apr 8, 8:30am  

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