Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear [Hardcover]

 

 

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A great read about crafting language and how it affects opinions.(Consider the death tax vs. the estate tax or pro-choice vs. pro-life) The book also describes the average American and their perspective. Luntz also offers some advice on crafting your own message - brevity and simplicity being his preference.

Frank Luntz tells us how to speak to people.
He highlights that what matters is not the words we speak, but what people understand. This is an important book, regardless of your political view. Absolutely, must-read!

The only redeeming quality I can find in this book is that it is a useful teaching tool to watch out for techniques that empty-headed leaders use.

Luntz starts by attempting to dissuade critics that these techniques are manipulative and contribute to the "dumbing of America" by essentially stating that they work to achieve the desired goals. He demonstrates this repeatedly by showing cases where the same topic gets significantly different results when worded differently. By his own admission, this demonstrates that the public doesn't understand the topic. So, he concludes, phrase things in ways that get the result you want because if you phrase it in other ways you'll still get the biases but they'll work against you. And do it in short words and phrases because that's what most people understand.

The implicit insult to public intelligence aside, Luntz essentially argues to pander to biases, fears, and misunderstanding to get what you want. As far as politics are concerned, his suggestions are equivalent to treating the public as cattle that you need to prod in the direction of your side to win approval. This is the danger of such an approach. It further divides the public over what is, admittedly, a misunderstanding of the topics.

Luntz doesn't even hint that, because the public doesn't understand the topic or issue, perhaps a leader should educate and explain instead of pander. He minimizes the effectiveness of great oratory leaders to a few memorable phrases: "I have a dream.", "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." He fails to grasp that such leaders treat the public with respect and discuss important topics in great detail; they educate rather than pander.

Luntz also attempts to describe his book as non-partisan even though he's done most of his work for the Republican Party. While he does pay this some lip service, noting some cases where Democrats have used words and situations "correctly" and Republicans failed to do so, the book is sprinkled with small, subtle jabs. For example, he describes Bush Sr.'s folly with a supermarket scanner and takes a moment for a side comment that the public and media perception was unfair and a misrepresentation of the circumstances. However, he points out Al Gore's loss of credibility from claiming he invented the internet and was the inspiration for Love Story, without a single mention that these were unfair partisan misrepresentations that did not match what he said, in or out of context. Hardly non-partisan in his treatment.

When it comes to marketing and advertisement, there might be some useful nuggets in here. However, a much better book on the topic is "Made to Stick" by Dan and Chip Heath, who have backgrounds in studying and teaching business case studies at Stanford and Harvard. Luntz's education and background are in politics, not marketing, and it shows. In particular, Luntz suggests that his knowledge in this field comes from personal experience. Virtually the only "science" he brings into his field is the use of statistical polling upon which he takes the variation of outcomes from variations of wordings as the end result of the "studies", rather than a measured phenomenon to be studied and understood.

The most dangerous aspect of Luntz's book is that it might compel otherwise intelligent leaders to "dumb it down" and end up driving a bigger wedge between opposing views instead of bringing them together by educating. The fact is, these techniques can, and probably do, work if applied in a headline-hungry, snippet-driven context where empty catch phrases win out over better ideas. Thankfully, with Obama winning the U.S. election (after the publication of this book) through great oratory skills and confronting difficult subjects in a manner respectable to the public, without pandering, I have restored confidence that the public's affinity for education and understanding will win out over pandering to fears and biases.

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