obvert
Posts: 14050
Joined: 1/17/2011 From: PDX (and now) London, UK Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: warspite1 quote:
ORIGINAL: mind_messing It is an increasing trend to try and distill your messaging into key words and phrases to enhance reach. More recently, the winner has to be reducing complex international negotiations and legislation down to three words: "Get Brexit Done" warspite1 Well the referendum took place in June 2016. In December 2019 there was still endless debate and argument about leaving, remaining, type of Brexit, Referendum 2 (The Sequel), blah blah blah blah So the message put out was vote for me and we'll "Get Brexit Done". Whereas the message emanating from the other corner was.... "it's been over 3 years since the people of the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU. Since then there has been nothing but argument, counter-argument, chaos and confusion. Vote for me and...I'll allow that wholly unsatisfactory state of affairs to continue for another interminable length of time because I either don't have the mental capacity to make a decision I believe is right, or because I do know what I think is right but will make me lose the election if I make that clear (but don't have the foggiest understanding that not making my position clear will have the same result anyway)." Right or wrong, distilling your message into a few key words and phrases can be a sensible course of action... This has been the case for a while now. Certain groups can use catch phrases that have power and stick, that end up becoming a defining concept for the public. There is a quiet brilliance in the development of those simple words and phrases. On the other hand the world is very complex, and others want people to be aware that it's not as easy as a catch phrase, and try to spell out the complexity with some carefully bullet-pointed programs. Many with an eye on the news, aware the complexity of many issues, with the patience and interest, aware of the multiple sides at play, see those longer platforms and actually find some value. A larger and larger majority just want someone to tell them it's going to be okay. They see a tagline and feel confidence that those behind it will help them return to a ideal normal they envisage, whether or not that has ever actually been normal or ideal. It really comes down to the increase in information with the rise of the internet. In teaching design I stress the use of increasing visual symbols to stand for words, phrases and ideas, the increasing use of acronyms and abbreviated names and phrases and how that plays a part in distilling the complexity into something everyone can understand quickly and easily, sometimes across languages and borders. #hashtags are definitely part of this trend, as is the move to Instagram image-based marketing. People want to feel confident in platforms, and want platforms to feel confident. That can be tricky though, since it's easier to be confident in simple taglines than try to relay confidence in communicating the nuance that is really inherent in the world and it's machinery.
< Message edited by obvert -- 5/7/2020 9:25:48 AM >
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"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill
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