By David W. Burns
August 1, 2011

Dr. Frank Luntz, the prominent Republican pollster and Fox News contributor, addressed the non-partisan group of mayors at a July 23 morning session of the Los Angeles Leadership Meeting on the topic of “Messaging the Metropolitan Investment Agenda,” focusing mostly on the language that mayors use when addressing constituents.

Luntz opened his remarks talking about infrastructure, one of the most important issues to mayors. “When you campaign, when you get elected, and when you govern, people are making judgments about you,” he said. “There are visuals in the infrastructure debate that you aren’t capturing.”

This idea of creating or taking advantage of visuals was one of Luntz’s key points. As an example, with infrastructure, he put two images on a screen, which had two very different reactions. The first one of a road with a gigantic pothole and the other a freeway interchange.

Luntz remarked, “The public is already there with you on infrastructure.” He continued, “Eighty-eight percent think that it is essential to the economy. You have actually won the debate but you are losing the war because you are presenting it like MIT people and not presenting it like real human beings. And, by the way, it’s bi-partisan. The only thing holding you back and your projects back is the feeling that money gets wasted.”

Luntz applied this lesson not just to infrastructure, but also to the language used in the debate on environment, health care, and education.

The rest of the discussion focused on expectations versus reality. Luntz challenged mayors by surveying the mayors on what they believed were priorities for men and women in regards to quality of life. He also shared the wrong and right phrases to use in communicating based on the feelings they create.

In the end, Luntz’s conversation helped direct mayors in the right direction when it comes to talking with their constituents and developing a stronger message by using preferred words and making their message more visual through photos and video.