Flashback to your middle-school days. If you are like me, you remember the anti-smoking education you were exposed to, in particular the pictures of black and cloudy lungs.
Medical professionals & teachers loved these things - they were so educational! The problem was, they didn't prevent kids from smoking.
The response was predictable - MORE detailed and information-packed pictures and diagrams.
You will perhaps recall the creepy "cutaway" drawing of a human body, in full color, showing how smoking damaged lungs, heart, brain and vascular system.
But even these efforts failed to motivate most youth to avoid smoking.
Finally, by the early 1990s, the field of "Social Marketing" began to mature, and medical professionals slowly realized that educating people with the facts was NOT enough- that crafting the message was more important than the message itself, at least in the eyes and ears of the people you were trying to reach.
It's a trick that Democrats and Progressives could stand to learn as well, because it is a potentially powerful tool to defeat the Karl Rove "Echo Chamber" and its grip on America.
Read More