I started and finished A Sense of Direction in one evening; I couldn't really stop thinking about it, so I couldn't put it down. I found it...
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This book is on my "to read" list because of Luntz's appearance in the PBS Frontline episode called "The Persuaders." This program presented modern marketing's role in persuading consumers to buy. Luntz was featured on the segment on political marketing. While I admire his sensitivity to the nuances of language (why I had my marketing students watch the segment), it was striking how amoral Luntz seemed to be. On the Republican Party campaign to eliminate the estate tax, his change in the marketing campaign to re-position it as an "death tax" was brilliant -- but his inability to address whether the Republican Party's and corporations' re-positioning strategies merely dis-inform voters and ill-serve the nation was striking. It just doesn't seem to enter his mind that he might just have a higher duty than to profit himself and the narrow interests of his employers. Perhaps someday he will suffer pangs of conscience -- but I doubt it.
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Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear by Frank Luntz
SBConners, July 12, 2007
This book is on my "to read" list because of Luntz's appearance in the PBS Frontline episode called "The Persuaders." This program presented modern marketing's role in persuading consumers to buy. Luntz was featured on the segment on political marketing. While I admire his sensitivity to the nuances of language (why I had my marketing students watch the segment), it was striking how amoral Luntz seemed to be. On the Republican Party campaign to eliminate the estate tax, his change in the marketing campaign to re-position it as an "death tax" was brilliant -- but his inability to address whether the Republican Party's and corporations' re-positioning strategies merely dis-inform voters and ill-serve the nation was striking. It just doesn't seem to enter his mind that he might just have a higher duty than to profit himself and the narrow interests of his employers. Perhaps someday he will suffer pangs of conscience -- but I doubt it.(3 of 7 readers found this comment helpful)