Perceptions are reality, aren’t they?
Perceptions are reality - that’s the long-held mantra of the advertising and communications industry.
Why then was there such scandal when Yang Peiyi with her flawless voice got changed out of the Olympic’s opening ceremony with Lin Miaoke for her flawless image and expressions.
I recall a furore and outrage that we had been duped by China’s Olympic organisers.
Where did they learn such tricks?
From western democracies I suspect. Look no further than Sarah Palin who is now the Republicans’ Lin Miaoke. She’s the wholesome, conservative.All-American Sarah-get your-gun poster girl for the re-election of the Republicans. Never mind her serious lack of experience.
When communicators sense that people have stopped thinking for themselves or that the message is too complex, there is a temptation for perceptions to get changed-out for reality.
Our challenge is to ensure that communications maintain substance. This is a steep task in a world that loves the one-liner, like the one I read yesterday. In lamenting the health woes of Maori, one columnist compared their changing eating habits over 200 years as ‘the journey from kereru to KFC’. We are easily seduced by the glib.
But that blog’s for another time.
Tags: advertising, communications, Olympics, Sarah Palin
September 11th, 2008 at 7:35 am
I am not sure that this proves that perception exceeds reality. More, its a different interpretation of reality. Sarah Palin is an experienced person, though not in the finer point of Washington Government. She has been a local politician of note, a community activist, has brought up five children and has been active in the GOP. She clearly has enough experience to have well developed views on many issues. Relative to others she may be inexperienced, but that is not her appeal.
Most importantly for the Republicans, she represents a contrasting image to the strong liberal pull of Barak Obama. The degree of success of this move is immediately apparent in the impact on the opinion polls. The current poll trend may not last, but she has provided, in her very being, a visual image which many Americans can attach to.
She is a case of a picture is worth a thousand words because clearly many Americans can see themselves in this picture and that’s why she is supported.
It illustrates a very important art of communication. You paint a picture and then you place people in it. There is a substantial number of Americans who don’t like the liberal picture of Obama (many do of course)and Palin represents a different reality.
Geoff
11 September 2009