Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Our Demands: Putting Cliches First

Register today:
Protesters occupied Herman Cain’s presidential campaign headquarters and the business office of Mitt Romney’s Iowa campaign leader Tuesday morning in protest of the candidates’ plans to reduce government...

In an e-mail release sent today to the Register, CCI leaders said they delivered letters to the Cain office and the office of Romney’s consultant.

The letter demands that the candidates put people first...
Register Friday:
Occupy Des Moines protesters showed up at Iowa’s largest health-insurance company today to demand relief from rate increases.

About a dozen protesters delivered a letter addressed to John Forsyth, chairman of Wellmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield. The letter demands that the insurer drop its premiums. “Enough is enough. It’s time to put people before profits. It’s time to put patients first. Consider yourselves on notice.”
Enough is enough: where have I heard that before?



So we've doubled down on DEMANDS and (with minor variation) PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST. A couple months back I argued that one of the C's in CCI was for "Counterproductive." It seems the other one is for "Cliche." (Which I honor by reviving the five year old Snakes On A Plane meme.)



This is what democracy looks like.

Priceless Register line: "The letter doesn’t specify what will happen to the insurer if it ignores the notice." Some variation on Hey Hey Ho Ho, I would guess.

Just to make sure the humor impaired get it: by and large I think the goals here are good, but the tactics and ESPECIALLY the rhetorical style are nails on chalkboard to me. What do I want? New Slogans! When do I want them? Now!

2 comments:

  1. "Putting People First: How We Can All Change America" was the Clinton-Gore campaign book back circa 1992. Maybe that is why it continues to resonate today.

    ReplyDelete
  2. John,
    How about this, Iowa Coalition of Counterproductive Imbeciles?

    ReplyDelete