"We believe that what is true of political communications and consumer marketing is true of any and all communications: human beings decide what they think of you with their gut. If your emotional message leaves them cold, then your argument won’t matter."
Derek Draper, April 2008
6 comments:
Derek, you give me diarrhea.
Well at least that explains why this blog is about gossip rather than Tory policy!
Hey, Iain, can you ask Guido when his site will be back up ? (Suspect his server has melted under the strain.)
Yup. Chapter one of Janet and John Go Into Advertising. It's on the GCSE Media Studies reading list. (Dolly's really not very good at anything, is he?)
Unfortunately I think he is correct. It wasn't always the case - when Britain was more reserved and less given to showy emotional outburst we were less susceptible to emotional arguments - but modern Britain is very different - as a result emotive arguments are generally more successful than rational ones.
Part of the reason for this is that conservatives have allowed the left to dictate this style of communication - Cameron is as prone as anyone to using emotive arguments rather than rational ones (AGW is a case in point) - and so any debate about any issue becomes an argument over emotional issues.
Hence immigration debate is about race; public spending cuts are about closing schools and hospitals; education is about elitism and so on.
The left has always been keen to use emotive arguments (and they dare to call the conservatives "reactionary"!), but in the last 30 years or so the right has fallen into this trap and joined the argument on their terms. Believe me, you will always lose.
@Oliver. Sincere apologies; in future, I'll only post to blogs I agree with. Debate is so passe! And dialectics? Greek!
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