A month or so ago, Blaise Zerega, CEO of online topical video aggregator and conversation-connecter Foratv, posted comments from a recent Commonwealth Club forum made by cognitive linguist George Lakoff. The video shows Lakoff speaking at a recent Commonwealth Club forum about town halls and the health care debate as it relates to language and the human brain. For one, I want to give props to Zerega for using social media in a way that contributes to important and timely conversations (as opposed to simply shilling for his company). His post shows a good understanding of how he can highlight Foratv without resorting to all-too-common marketing desperation on the Internet. Bravo, Blaise.
Now, as I sat there listening to Lakoff and reflecting on the underlying marketing savvy of Zerega’s post, I started to think a little more seriously about the role of marketing in the process of democracy. This tendency towards marketing on the part of politicians and interest groups to persuade Americans about matters of policy is something that fails the sniff test for many thinkers and critics, Noam Chomsky one of the most prominent.
At the same time, strong marketing exhibits a keen understanding of how people think and how they absorb information, as well as how their material circumstances or cultural and personal preconceptions may affect their responses to information or calls to action. In a political context, this may not necessarily be a bad thing.

Consider the relatively recent flap kicked off by former president Jimmy Carter when he stated baldly on TV that so-called tea-baggers venting their collective spleens about health care reform at town hall meetings were consciously or unconsciously motivated by racism. Carter has never had a firm grasp on how to deliver messages in a way that they can be accepted and absorbed by the public (just read his “malaise” speech). He doesn’t get marketing. Being right doesn’t matter if no one can accept what you have to say. If he had a bit more insight in terms of marketing, the whole debate around his comments might have been quite different.

And that’s the double-edged sword of marketing when you think of it in relation to politics. It can be glib. It can reduce complex issues too much. But, at the same time, an understanding of cognitive psychology (which is implicit in marketing) can make it much easier to get people to consider your ideas – especially when they may challenge a person’s lifestyle or viewpoints.