Which are more powerful? Dreams or Nightmares?
by Antonio on 17/05/09 at 5:00 pm
When it comes to changing the world, I believe that scaring the shit out of people only works up to a point.
I really love this quote:
“Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech is famous because it put forward an inspiring, positive vision that carried a critique of the current moment within it. Imagine how history would have turned out had King given an ‘I have a nightmare’ speech instead.”
From the book Breakthrough by Nordhaus and Shellenberger
Nordhaus and Shellenberger argue that the environmental movement needs to reframe its message to use more positive language. Instead of relying on a narrative focused on apocalyptic imagery, death and destruction, we must start to use messages which help us to feel good about creating a more sustainable world.
I think this is true for many other types of public service media.
Anti-bullying campaigns, Anti-knife crime, anti-social behaviour – they’re all based on a very suspect premise that you can wage war on something that in itself is a negative (remember the War on Terror? We all know how successful that turned out to be).
How could we start to re-frame these issues using a more positive language that gives people the feeling that they can move forwards and make things better? If we don’t, I worry that those who we are targetting will simply switch off and not listen to us anymore.
Or am I just being a typical sandal-wearing muesli-eating liberal? Don’t hold back..
(Pic by Only Alice)
Dave Harte
Jun 29th, 2009
I presented on this very subject at wxwm2 last month. I imagined a replacement of the tedious government obesity campaign ‘Change for Life’ with a celebration of all the data that runners gather in their GPS devices on a sunday morning. All those miles, all that exercising. How about we add in all the amateur footie matches going on as well. Imagine a live map that showed all the miles covered by the people who do engage in sport and exercise. That would send a more powerful message about participation rather than the demonisation we get now.
But then PR in general stinks. It doesn’t understand the potential of new communication tools and if it’s not yet stopped working then it’s on its way to it.
Levent
Jun 29th, 2009
If cigarette packaging had captions and supporting images such as “Quit smoking and you’ll have skin like Beyonce*” do you believe it would have a better effect than the current strategy (which doesn’t seem to work in itself)?
*also dependent on DNA, diet and deep-exfoliation
Ed
Jun 29th, 2009
I would say this as I’m a fan of, and work with them, but check out http://www.transitionnetwork.org – excellent language, clear goals etc.
Antonio
Jun 29th, 2009
Dave – That’s *exactly* the kind of thing I’m talking about – will definitely check out that talk. Seems like we’re on the same wavelength
Levent – but I don’t smoke and I don’t look anything like Beyonce. What was that? Oh, really? Well I did get my hair done recently.. oh thankyou *blush*
Seriously though – it’s a good question when it comes to anti-smoking campaigns. They really are designed to scare the shit out of you aren’t they? I don’t know the research on whether they work or not, so maybe I’ll go and find out. Good question!
Bobbie Gardner
Jun 29th, 2009
Funny… current read is Panic-ology by Briscoe and Aldersey-Williams and am delivering workshops entitled Dazzling Dreams and Nasty Nightmares to year 5 students, best nightmare image was:
‘Wakes up in a forest, evil witch comes from a dark and dull cave with poison ivy. The witch makes everything disappear including family, except you. It’s a white room. ‘
Most interesting point so far in the book is that the media have risen stakes of fear and anxiety illustrated by this lovely formula: risk= hazard x public outrage. Being killed by a volcanic blast doesn’t affect us as much these days, but terrorist attacks make us angry, but could the odds of them occurring be the same/close?
As you know our fears of course are distorted by those writing the stats for their own personal agendas…
Sandal wearing hippy are you, but I think society’s anxiety levels could easily be reduced by journalists (who claim to be experts in so many areas) using less hyperbolic language, then again we still read the damm articles.
Dave Harte
Jun 29th, 2009
Antonio. For info:
Presentation on slideshare:
http://www.slideshare.net/daveharte/running-at-marathon-pace-just-to-stand-still
My review of the event I pitched it at:
http://daveharte.com/social-media/wxwm2-half-a-review/
Antonio
Jun 30th, 2009
Ed: I LOVE Transition Towns, it’s such a brilliant idea – need to look more into this I think.
Bobbie: Yes – I guess fear sells papers and gets politicians elected. Adam Curtis’ The Power of Nightmares is a great study into this. I guess the big question is whether can fear make the world better.
Thanks for all the comments!
CT
Oct 5th, 2009
I would say this as I’m a fan of, and work with them, but check out http://www.transitionnetwork.org – excellent language, clear goals etc.