Stay on Track!

One of the major dangers that campaigners face is to be side-tracked off their own messages and diverted into debates they don’t want to have. It needs strong discipline and excellent preparation to resist this.

Advice from MAP

Once you’ve figured out your message, stay on it! This requires discipline. It’s easy to be pulled off message by current events, bad press coverage, baiting by opponents, or supporters who want wording that resonates with them. The public may enjoy the mud-slinging between Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump, but if you start throwing mud pies at your opponents, the focus will be on the mud, not the campaign message.

[dt-space height=”30″][ultimate_modal modal_title=”Case Study: Lessons from Moldova” btn_bg_color=”#ffffff” btn_bg_hover_color=”#efefef” btn_text=”Case Study: Lessons from Moldova” overlay_bg_opacity=”80″ img_size=”80″ btn_txt_color=”#dd9933″ button_text_font_style=”font-style:italic;,font-weight:bold;” button_text_font_size=”desktop:18px;” button_text_line_height=”desktop:18px;”]Stay on track! One of the most difficult things in a campaign is to stick to your messaging policy. You might be attacked by opponents and can’t resist the temptation to “snap back”. Or a good opportunity might come along to surf on some other message that becomes mainstream, or to jump on the bandwagon of a debate that gets public attention. Here, the organisers decided to stay on track and stick to the campaign message and frame and not to use the “Pride” frame and its rainbow flag visual. A good lesson of coherence and message discipline.

Practicing !

Image you are engaged in a campaign for the right of Transgender people to have their gender recognised without interference of psychiatric diagnosis. An opponent challenges you with the often heard argument that Transgender people are confused. He would argue: “But what if Transgender people then change their minds and want to revert to their initial gender? Are we going to have people play ping-pong between male and female gender ?”. How would you continue the engagement in the debate, without engaging on the opponent’s argument? Share your inspiration in the comments section below?

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