Values that matter

We have spent a great deal of time exploring values oriented approaches to messaging.  We’ve read Lakoff and discussed in great lengths the power of framing.  But is it enough to focus on values?  While values provide a powerful access point to the underlying factors that drive behaviour, Shove would likely argue that we are not reaching deep enough.  We need to get to the underlying emotions that inform the values that drive behaviour.

I don’t doubt the power of a values oriented approach, but even in the transparent forms framing discussed in the Common Cause seem somewhat manipulative, and in the end I’m not sure if the changes they create are sustainable.  If the underlying emotions that impact values are not addressed, is a return to our default state not inevitable?

It was interesting to consider the three pairs of frames that were identified as possessing the greatest potential to impact the desired values.

·         Self interest vs. Common interest

·         Strict father vs. Nurturant parent

·         Elite governance vs. Participative democracy

So to what degree should we allow “our brains to be messaged”?  It would be interesting to see a political campaign with some real money behind it call into question our values, rather than trying to manipulate them for their own ends.  In the end no single approach is enough.  Values oriented approaches have worked for ad agencies for decades, but every manipulative messaging technique eventually runs its course.  You could argue that the environmental movement continues to lag a few paces behind marketing firms that have been using frames for decades, or at least ever since consumers  became desensitized to product informed advertising.  Will the same thing happen to values oriented approaches, we probably don’t have to explicitly add transparency to the messaging, after a while the audience will see right through it anyway.  I’m not actually that cynical about framing, there exists no single messaging technique capable of addressing the issues our biosphere currently faces, and values oriented approaches are a known commodity.  However, the search continues for an ever stronger leverage point.