Politicians 'can't communicate'

2008-10-06 09:24

Chris Moerdyk

The top marketing communicators in the United States have been unanimous in claiming that the Bush administration's $700bn bailout plan would have been passed by legislators the first time round if they hadn't communicated what it was all about so indescribably badly.

"The administration blew it, and I actually empathise with the House, Senate, Republicans and Democrats," said one marketing analyst. "The administration put up a red light here before a yellow flashing light and that was a jolt to the political establishment and the public."

Andrew Benett, CEO of Euro RSCG New York, wrote in a column released this week that this was a catastrophic failure of branding.

Benett describes the current state of affairs as a highly complicated situation that no one has taken the time to explain or simplify for the American people. He believed the proper wording would have made a big difference.

"'Bailout' connotes failure, and Americans hate failure," he said. "There is nothing redemptive about a bailout. What if this had been called a 'rescue' from the beginning? Or the 'Save Our Homes Act'?

"Supporting a 'rescue' is a bear of an entirely different species. It is not only a redemptive act, restoring things to their rightful order - it is heroic."

'A gift to Wall Street'

Now, what amazes me is that why the president of the most powerful nation on earth has spent billions of dollars surrounding himself with all sorts of experts, doesn't seem to have bothered to have hired a single marketer to help him explain himself to the public of the United States in a way that they can understand?

Instead of seeing this bailout package as a mechanism to allow the ordinary guy to get credit for cars, houses and small businesses, the US public just saw it as a "gift to Wall Street". As rich people getting some free money so their businesses wouldn't crash.

So, they inundated their senators and congressmen with e-mails, faxes and phone calls threatening not to vote for them in future if they agreed to the package.

Well, the problem of course, is that politicians the world over all seem to believe that communication is not only something that comes naturally to human beings but something that if you happen to get elected for a government job you automatically get endowed with the gift of professional communication.

They won't even think about being mentored or trained in how to communicate or deal with the media, they just assume they know it all. They really believe they know it all. Which is why there are so many wars. Why there is so much political infighting. And so much misunderstanding.

Our South African politicians are exactly the same. The Mbeki cabinet was not only clueless when it came to dealing with the media and communications in general and were sometimes just as arrogant as those apartheid regime cabinet ministers who hardly bothered to communicate at all and when they did it was in the form of wagging threatening fingers under media and opposition noses.

Hopefully, someone in the ANC will give our new president a heads up on the whole question of dealing with the media and communicating succinctly, simply and frequently with the South African population.

The worst US president

The more he learns about marketing, communication and the machinations of the media, the easier his job will be. And he will also have the benefit of not having to go through the humiliation that SABC put him through on his very first address to the nation on TV. If the SABC hasn't been hauled over the coals by the presidency yet, they should be.

There he was in front of a tatty set above the foyer of the SABC headquarters with an escalator trundling away in the right hand corner and all manner of motley SABC crew wandering about in the background. Not to mention those distracting him from behind the cameras. Hardly the way to treat a head of state.

Let's hope that none of our politicians are taking any communications lessons from George Bush because history will show that he was not only the worst US president of all time but also the president that made least sense whenever he opened his mouth.

Send your comments to Chris.

Disclaimer: News24 encourages freedom of speech and the expression of diverse views. The views of columnists published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24.

- News24