Dear Friend of Herndon,

A key finding of the Herndon Alliance research is that it truly matters how we talk about health care reform. In focus groups, we could lose the issue 8:1 or win it 9:0 depending on what values, images, and feelings we evoked.

Well-crafted progressive messages substantially outperform the strongest conservative counter-messages, whereas weakly crafted messages fail to gain support. Now is the time to go on offense on health care reform, using language we know in advance works.

We also know that simply changing our words is not enough. Due to popular demand we've included the list of "Words to use" below. But please remember that reframing issues by using stories and narratives that bring up "kitchen table" issues are the strongest messages you can create.

Bob Crittenden
The Herndon Alliance

Message of the Week September 15, 2008: The Words We Use

Words to Use Words to Avoid

Quality affordable health care Universal health care

American solutions Canadian style health care

A choice of private and public plans Medicare for all

Choice and control Competition

Giving security and peace of mind Government health care for all

Fair rules Regulations

Sliding scale, pay what you Free
can afford

Prevention Wellness

Guaranteed Required

Government as a watchdog, ensure Public or government health care
a fair playing field

Affordable health plans Basic health care

Smart investments, investing Inexpensive
in the future

Not interested any more?

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