The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee is looking for the best slogan for its bumper stickers. Over at Salon they had a contest of their own and the results are witty, literate and just dreadful. Check them out, then scroll down to: ”Look a Shiny Object”.
An effective slogan is one of the most difficult tasks of corporate or campaign communication but the five-element model helps. A bumper sticker is a physicalized form of viral advertising. As we mention in Chapter 8 “Under the Radar” of our book The Elements of Persuasion the key to a viral message is to focus exclusively on only one of the five elements, knowing that the rest of your message is already in your listeners brain somewhere waiting to be activated Your slogan doesn’t need to be funny, it just needs to be a fact wrapped in an emotion that activates an already established neural pattern of past memories – many subconscious. It is most effective it if elicits very basic emotions – loss, dread, hunger, lust – to which there is an understood response. “Got Milk?” is a great example.
The Dems might want to focus on the element of Antagonist and the emotion of betrayal and distrust (that comes up a lot in their speeches). Our entry? “WHAT ELSE AREN’T THEY TELLING US? Dem 08” Not great, but hey, you can do better. Go over the DSCC website and give it a try – if you are a Dem of course.
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