Topic: LEARNING FROM MADISON AVENUE
Rarely do non-profit communicators gather to discuss their strategies without someone asserting that "we have to learn from the for-profit sector." Typically, this translates into the need to pitch social issues emotionally, connecting mainly to fear and pity, to use highly rhetorical tone or dramatic images to "break through the clutter," or to reinforce existing frames because we have to "start where people are." In its new CD-Rom for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, "Making Communications Connections," FrameWorks takes this advice on directly and attempts to sort out the wheat from the chaff when applying commercial techniques to social issues.
FrameWorks would now like to get the discussion back on equal footing. The question should be: what does Madison Avenue know that we know too? And how are they using our techniques in ways that can be instructive to us?
Two recent ads in the Washington Post can be used to point out that what we know, they know too.
The Power of Metaphor I: A Country is a Kid
First, an ad from US-Canada Partnerships for Growth should be the poster-boy for metaphorical thinking. If you've read FrameWorks' research on international issues (posted on our website), you know that people tend to think of countries as people and to frame international issues in terms of interpersonal issues (Mexico is our neighbor, NATO is a club or a marriage of convenience, etc.). We owe our colleague George Lakoff for this insight.
Taking a page from our research, the Canadian ad features two young boys, one missing a tooth, with their arms around each other and the caption: We Grew Up Together. The ad appears at right.
Here's the copy:
-
The United States and Canada are more than good neighbors. Together, we've grown to become the world's largest trading partners - almost $500 billion each year, providing millions of jobs. In fact, Canada is the number one customer for the goods and services from 37 US states.
But a new 27% import tax has been imposed on Canadian lumber, creating a trade barrier that is damaging this relationship.
If left in place, this 27% tax will cause economic harm on both sides of the border - because if it weakens America's biggest customer, it's only a matter of time before it undermines American interests as well.
Let's get this relationship back on track. Learn how you can help at www.partnership forgrowth.com. Let's Keep A Good Thing Growing.
So, framers, did these smart folks make their primary case on the basis of self-interest, massive destruction, sympathetic lines of unemployed workers? Nope, they sold their case on the basis of strong metaphorical mapping and values.
The Power of Metaphor II: A Car is a Parent
Our second ad is from Volvo. Here we have another great example of metaphorical mapping. The headline reads:
A PARENT CAN BE TOO OVERPROTECTIVE. A CAR CAN'T.
Here's the copy:
Like a lot of parents, you'd probably do anything to protect your kids. Even if it means doting over them, coddling them and watching them like a hawk. But what happens when you also need to be watching the road? Turn to the Volvo V70 wagon. It's equipped with a number of standard safety features (long list here)….The V70 wagon can give your kids the security you never had. By doting over them, coddling them and watching them like a hawk.
In this ad, the framers have primed us with the Level One Value of Protection, then equated the car with the parent. So, of course, as good parents we would choose a car that can help us in our protective parenting.
This ad is especially clever in acknowledging that some parents protect too much, but a car can't make the same mistake. You can't buy too much protection.
And, when we evaluate this ad in the context of what we know about news coverage of children and children's issues, we remember that the number one issue for media is safety. By priming this readily available default frame, and then equating good parenting with safe cars, this ad uses a lot of framing power in a short space.
Eureka! The (Re)Discovery of Priming
So, fellow framers, rather than seeing ourselves as catching up with communications practices, maybe we should see ourselves as at the top of our game. After all, many folks are just now discovering what we've known for awhile.
As witness to this assertion, you need look no further than Richard Morin's recent column on "new facts and hot stats from the social sciences" in the Washington Post (November 17, 2002 B5). Here Morin reports on a recent survey conducted by the Washington Post, Henry J. Kaiser Foundation and Harvard University that purports to document that a previous survey question (a frame) can actually influence responses to a subsequent question. Here's what they report:
"Half of the respondents were first asked what they thought about Bush's performance. Then they were asked about the direction of the country. For the other half, the order was reversed. And voila: Asking first about Bush boosted the proportion that saw the country headed in the right direction by eight percentage points - from 34 percent to 42 percent.
Bush's magic didn't hold in the other direction, however, His job approval rating fell by about 6 percentage points (to 60 percent) when people were first asked where they thought the country was headed."
Far from equating priming with "magic," we know it as just good framing practice. When we introduce a discussion of youth programs by reminding people of the values kids learn in sports and performing arts, we borrow this principle - and extend it. When we open a discussion of poor families by reminding people of the important American belief in opportunity, we use the power of priming to help people consider the issue at hand from a better angle.
So next time you wish you had a Madison Avenue advisor or a hot pollster on your communications team, remember how much you DO know and how the basic principles of framing can be used to your advantage!
