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Leapfrog Climate Conflict Now

Earth Day in the U.S. usually means celebrating earth’s beauty, learning how to make our  lives greener, and marveling at the smart cookies jumping in now with more ecologically friendly products and services. With Al Gore, Arnold (see Newsweek 4.16.07) and Tom Friedman (New York Times Magazine, 4.22.07) on board, we finally have some blue, […]

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Re Iran: The ‘Cool It’ Option

Most American progressives agree that a U.S. ‘preventive’ strike on Iran, nuclear or not, would be stupid, and self-destructive, as well as immoral and illegal under international law. Our challenge right now is to help foster broader public support for diplomacy, not war. So how should we talk to the media and mainstream public about it? Right now too […]

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Wrong on Terror

Dear MP Network, Although ‘weak on terror’ is a common phrase these days, ‘wrong on terror’ covers more ground and right now may reach even those who usually think any military reaction at all is ‘strong.’ But don’t just take my word for how ‘wrong’ it is . In case you missed it, below is […]

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Talking about Iraq

Dear MP Network, This post is in two parts: headlines with frames (no caps) followed by a rationale for the headlines. If you are in a hurry and you agree with my suggestions, you can skip the rationale, although it contains a few more ideas and frames (in caps) not included in the headlines. All […]

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Sellout, Not Security

Friends, we are in one of the biggest framing crises since 911. The President calls the UAE port management deal business/free trade as usual. But there’s a threat behind the administration’s rhetoric too– you don’t want to be seen as anti-Arab/Muslim, do you? This is a serious, far-reaching trap for all opponents to this deal. […]

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How To Take The Latest ‘Framing’ Buzz

Dear MP Network, Maybe it’s the threat of Samuel Alito actually being seated on the U.S. Supreme Court, but in the last week or so it seems like there’s just been an explosion of new ideas, sites, blogs, articles or online debate about framing. For example, we have Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack’s ‘Our Ten Words’ […]

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Fighting Fire with Fire: ‘More’ & ‘Pop Speak’

Reframing the great American ‘more’ In the November 2005 issue of ‘free-range thinking,’ Andy Goodman’s lively communications newsletter, there is a story about what ‘re-branding’ has done for The Center for A New American Dream, an organization devoted to helping move the public toward sustainable consumption. Interesting enough, the key thing they did was shift […]

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Framing Sustainability for the American Mainstream

(A Memo prepared for the Marketing Action Sub-Committee of the U.S. Partnership for the U.N. Decade of Education for Sustainability) For successful framing, we have to understand what motivates mainstream Americans. In general, economic success or opportunity is the most powerful motivator to get the American public moving toward sustainability, although it is best not […]

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Speaking American About Economic Justice

(Published in Words That Work: Messaging for Economic Justice, a joint project of Tides Foundation and Spin Project) Today, success in promoting economic justice demands that we speak honest American. To be heard above the public din, we need to be able to reframe our own messages as part of the best American story. We […]

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Talking Opportunity in America

To create change, we must frame our messages as part of the hopeful American story -a story about what America should be. Fortunately, telling this story isn’t much of a stretch, because it authentically is our dream: a fair nation that consistently creates prosperity and protects opportunity for all. To best tell this story, we […]