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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Glitzy Labels Gloss Over Truth Politicians Using Everything But Jingles To Sell Ideas

Calvin Woodward Associated Press

It was called simply The Food Stamp Act of 1964 - huge in importance though modest in name. If such a bill were introduced today, it would probably have to have a flashier label.

Something like, The Putting Food in the Mouths of Innocent Babes Act.

Madison Avenue has come to Washington in a big way. The catchy or devastating phrase, the sloganeering legislative title, the gloss of grandeur on the ordinary - all are used as shortcuts to the public’s heart.

Think banning certain kinds of ammunition is the wrong way to fight crime? Then you’re for “cop-killer bullets.”

Favor a woman’s right to undergo a certain late-term abortion procedure? Then you accept “partial birth abortions.”

And who dares stand against the Republicans’ American Dream Restoration Act or President Clinton’s Middle Class Bill of Rights, even if they do include expensive tax credits?

“In every element of our society we have become a lot more public relations oriented,” says Democratic pollster Peter Hart. “In politics, it’s probably the extreme example.”

Advertising sensibilities aren’t new in a city that offered Americans a New Deal and Great Society. But they have spread.

Back in the 1950s, Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson deplored the snap, crackle and pop of politics.

“The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal … is the ultimate indignity to the democratic process,” Stevenson said. He lost, twice.

Now even the nitty-gritty gets a dusting of marketing glitter. And those who manage to put a phrase in play may win the edge in public opinion.

“Give me the labeling and I’ll take my chances at the polls,” said Hart.

In politics as in the marketplace, a name can command public attention and sell the product, at least for a while, says marketing consultant Gary Stibel, who helped coin the label Lean Cuisine.

But it needs to have at least a ring of truth, said Stibel, founder of the New England Consulting Group in Westport, Conn. “And, ultimately, there has to be some substance there.”

Marketing professor Roland Rust of Vanderbilt University says “the name is part of the substance.

“What matters is not the physical product itself but what the customer thinks it is.”

In times less label-savvy, Lyndon Johnson sponsored a Great Society explosion of lawmaking with humdrum titles for acts such as Medicare, Older Americans, and Law Enforcement Assistance.

In 1982, then-senator Bob Dole, now Republican presidential candidate, opted for the motherhood-and-apple-pie name Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act. Equitable or not, it was a massive tax increase.

These days, seemingly anything goes. The GOP’s “Contract With America” offers 10 supercharged titles, including:

Taking Back Our Streets Act.

Common Sense Legal Reforms Act.

Family Reinforcement Act.

Imagine voting against those, whatever their drawbacks, and having opponents throw the titles at you in the next election, muses Hart. “It’s enough to make most politicians cringe.”

In 1990, the conservative political action group GOPAC, under Newt Gingrich’s leadership, sent 6,000 Republican politicians around the country a list of 131 recommended words for speeches and ads.

“Flag,” “prosperity” and “common sense” were among the pro-GOP words; “corruption,” “traitor” and “decay” among the words to use against the competition. A Democrat haughtily accused Republicans of playing Scrabble while Democrats talked issues.

Now, Clinton repeatedly challenges Congress to help him “protect police officers from cop-killer bullets.”

Despite the loaded terminology, he is seeking a largely technical redefinition of an existing ban on armor-piercing ammunition.

Dole, for his part, pledges to sign legislation vetoed by Clinton that would ban “partial birth abortions,” a non-clinical term for a procedure sometimes used in late pregnancy.

Democratic polls find people support the right to late-term abortion, said party pollster Celinda Lake. But they also support a ban on “partial birth” abortion when the question is phrased in those terms, she said.

Whether that’s because of the name or the procedure is not clear. But there is little doubt the label itself has power.

Stibel said politicians, if anything, have been slow to learn such lessons.

“Words and terminology are incredibly useful and it is remarkable how the political arena has underestimated and mismanaged that, relative to consumer packaged goods,” he said.

Politicians could take cues from fishermen. A fish called orange roughy is more popular now than when it was named slimehead.

xxxx Some dazzle; others fizzle Notable labels - some hits, some misses - in politics and the marketplace: Hits Orange roughy, a sweet, mild fish. Former name: slimehead. Pet Rock: The case of a name making a stone float in the marketplace. Canola oil: Formerly rapeseed oil. National defense: During the Cold War, a handy tag for almost anything. President Eisenhower expanded federal student aid with the National Defense Education Act, which had little to do with defense but played on rampant worries about the Soviet threat. Misses Fair Lady: Name of Nissan sports cars that had been sold in Japan and introduced to the U.S. market before being quickly changed to the more masculine “Z” series - 240Z and 300ZX. Pschitt: A French soft-drink flop in the United States. New World Order: President Bush’s phrase for the promises and complexities of the postCold War world was turned by critics into a label of ridicule and foreboding. Jury’s out Family values: Republican phrase that Democrats are trying to make backfire. Wise use: Business-based approach to environmentalism that critics say is a cover for exploiting nature. Anti-flag, anti-family, anti-child, anti-jobs, pathetic, liberal: From a 1990 Republican list of recommended words to use against opponents. Why bother? Slime eel from New England waters was renamed hag fish. Gruntfish or hogfish from the Carolinas was changed to pigfish. Who’s what? Names that suggest the high moral ground but reveal little about interests or ideology: People for the American Way: Which way? Left. Empower America: Right. Pro-choice and pro-life: For and against abortion rights. Northwesterners for More Fish: Public relations effort by Washington state industries to promote business-friendly alternatives to Columbia River salmon-conservation plans. Abundant Wildlife Society of North America: Hunters, trappers and fishermen opposed to reintroduction of grey wolves to Yellowstone. Slick legislative titles Defense of Marriage Act: To deny legal recognition of same-sex unions. Right to Work laws: To ensure workers do not have to join a union or pay dues as a condition of employment. Job Creation and Wage Enhancement Act: A “Contract With America” package of regulation curbs, a capital gains tax cut and smallbusiness incentives. Sources: AP, National Fisheries Institute, Audubon Society, American Enterprise Institute.