Message Crafting Quotes

Madison Avenue’s advertising men are going to run much of the show and ‘sell’ the candidates with the same compelling advertising techniques that they use to sell carloads of toothpaste, cigarettes and soap.

Governing today means giving acceptable signs of credibility. It is like advertising and it is the same effect that is achieved—commitment to a scenario.

As problems have grown more complex, leaders have struggled to find the language to discuss them clearly, credibly and at the right emotional amplitude. Nonplussed and tongue-tied, politicians give themselves over to message gurus … who peddle the notion that poll-tested words — honed and targeted with scientific precision — can pick the lock of public opinion.

People in power have to be careful about what comes out of their mouth. They have to find exactly the right word that can't be attacked.

Great speeches have always had great soundbites. The problem now is that the young technicians who put together speeches are paying attention only to the soundbite, not to the text as a whole, not realizing that all great soundbites happen by accident, which is to say, all great soundbites are yielded up inevitably, as part of the natural expression of the text. They are part of the tapestry, they aren't a little flower somebody sewed on.

Political consultants are pugilists, masters in the dark art of negativity. Which is why it's surprising to hear Democrats such as Steve McMahon and Republicans like Rich Galen urging their presidential candidates to be more, well, positive.

Campaigning is uncomfortable when you start.

A Democratic strategy firm is trying to help them out. They did a new poll from - it's a global strategy group. And they did a poll of both base Democrats and swing voting Democrats, trying to determine how to best harness this energy [ of leftist anger]. And maybe more importantly, how to message it.

Spending energy to understand the audience and carefully crafting a message that resonates with them means making a commitment of time and discipline to the process.

In another life, before taking the veil of journalistic purity, I practiced the black arts of a political operative, including 'debate prep.'

I got kids that are growing up in a Donald Trump world because we screwed up because we haven't been able to craft a message and push policies that connect with working class people.

I know certain techniques, such as a press release that looks like a newscast. So you use it because you want your man to win.

I don't do media training. I don't do that.

You play to whatever publication you're being interviewed by.

Standing in front of a microphone where every word or every slip that you make, especially in these times, is with you forever - you want to say the right thing. I fell into having to extemporize, and it came okay because of tools I've learned. I said [to myself], "Remember [to mention] mom and dad."

Your goal in an online dating profile and in your first message to somebody is to strike up a conversation.

In the old days, you could segment happily. You could put out one message to one segment of the audience, and one to another. That has now gone. You say something to one community and instantly, literally at a click, it's available to everybody. What it means is that if you're trying to craft a message, it's very difficult.