The AFL-CIO is
launching a $1.5 million initial ad buy in Pittsburgh and Austin, expanding to other cities in coming months. Rather than being targeted at specific politicians or policies, these spots advertise unions and the shared identity conferred by work, saying work "is what binds us together."
Gawker's Hamilton Nolan is critical of the spot, writing:
Unions need the opposite of vague, feel-good ads that completely lack any prescriptive qualities or, you know, ideas whatsoever. Christ, even an SVP from the union-hating Chamber of Commerce can point out the obvious in the WSJ: "No one questions the value of work, but that doesn't really relate to whether one wants to join a union."
If Republicans can continue to take credit for freeing the slaves 150 years later, unions should feel free to take credit for everything they've done for the workers of America in the same time frame: the 40-hour work week, child labor laws, fair wages.... you know, things that EVERYONE INCLUDING MILLIONS OF MIDDLE CLASS WORKERS WHO VOTE REPUBLICAN are extremely grateful for.
It's certainly true that it's difficult to find much of a pitch for unions in the ad above (the Associated Press report suggests there are multiple ads); in fact, if you're not paying close attention, you probably won't realize what the ad is specifically promoting.
On the other hand, focusing on gains unions made in the past provides an opening for a favorite Republican trick: saying that because we now do have weekends and occupational safety and health laws, unions are historical relics with no continuing relevance. (Mitt Romney has taken that approach at times.) It is also important for unions to focus on workers—union and not—and their struggles in and out of the workplace, to convey that unions benefit all workers and not just their own members, and to begin to counter some of the "union thug" and "big labor" and "labor boss" imagery the right has spent a generation and more implanting in the public discourse.
So figuring out how to improve the image of unions probably does hinge on workers, on the fact that while many people who don't have positive associations with the word "union" do care about or respect someone who has benefited from being a union member. But at the same time, it does seem like you should be able to figure out what an ad is advertising just by watching it. Your thoughts?