It’s How You Say It
In the PR world, we always had this handy tool called “Talking Points” that helped our clients stay on message when giving an interview to a print journalist or appearing on radio and TV. The general public, people outside “the business,” were blissfully unaware that the interviewee was mentally referencing a one-pager that had been meticulously crafted. But it was really just a guide, a backgrounder to help with interview prep. Today, Talking Points are written to be memorized and delivered verbatim. Have you noticed that everyone seems to be saying the same thing, using the same words and phrases, on all of the Sunday morning news programs?
It has been a stressful few weeks for HealthCare.gov, the $400 million federal health insurance website. Imagine being Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
I can’t even begin to grasp the Talking Points she has been asked to regurgitate to try to get the healthcare discussion back on track.
Actually politics, and particularly election campaigns, have given Talking Points a bad name. No one – and I mean no one in the political arena – answers a question anymore. They just find a way to segue into their next Talking Point.
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger could have taught a Master Class on the subject (“Does anyone here have any questions for my answers?”).
Inadvertently, comedian Jon Stewart gave a hilarious tutorial on how Talking Points (phrases and key words) make their way into all the news coverage and talk shows. His segment called The Spinning Beachball of Healthcare opened with clips showing all manner of government spokespersons using the word “glitch” to describe the rollout of the new healthcare website. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7InS-xW1LCI
That was no coincidence, folks.
The word glitch was carefully chosen. It makes the problem sound small. Something that’s easy to resolve. No worries. (As opposed to say the word, disaster).
But in spite of all the theatrics and gamesmanship, Talking Points (which date all the way back to the early 1900s by the way) remain an excellent tool for framing a debate, and for standardizing and prioritizing issues.
But I can’t help but wonder if it might be a good time to make this tactic seem more genuine. There’s a lot of robotic rhetoric out there that just isn’t resonating.
In my first real job, I promoted fiber glass insulation (we all have to start somewhere…).
I had a boss who was an uber salesman who lived on the road demonstrating the benefits of the product to building contractors. To convince them that fiber glass wasn’t all that irritable to the touch, he would actually pull off a piece from a roll and eat it.
Needless to say, it got everyone’s attention (if I can eat it you can install it) and made him something of a folk hero in the construction community.
My point is, he wasn’t just spouting empty platitudes.
He was making his point in a very dramatic, authentic, credible way.
So maybe we need to consider Munching Points.
What if Congress and the American people had seen Secretary Sebelius take a healthy chunk out of HealthCare.gov’s software and in a show of great disgust, proceed to spit it out all over her Talking Points (“I’m so done with those fools in IT…!”).
I think it would have left us with the distinct impression that things were about to change for the better.
Finally, “healthcare for all” (except for those fools in IT).
