According to John Russonello, a pollster and writer from Washington DC, there are seven things to keep in mind when dealing with any issue:
1. Decide what the goal of the campaign is--be very precise here--legislation? public education? referendum? participation?
2. Decide who your primary audience is and what you want to persuade that audience to do.
3. Listen for values in interviews or focus groups with your audience. He said all people have values but they hierarchialize them differently and use different language. Nevertheless, primary values are those that when you ask them why they think that so and so is important, they can't answer with a reason. Based on years of polling, he says that primary values are responsibility to care for oneself, responsibility to care for one's family, personal liberty, work, spirituality, honesty/integrity, and fairness/equality. Secondary values are based on primary values and include responsibility to care for others, personal fulfillment, respect for authority, and love for country or culture.
4. Understand that a slogan is not a message. A message is a paragraph consisting of references to the primary values you have decided to appeal to, a description of the problem, and the solution--or, put differently--value, threat to value, solution. After the message is crafted, you can then write a slogan by extracting key terms from the message.
5. Find an image or anecdote that captures your message, that will stick in the minds of the audience. We didn't get this worked out, but I used the Carrington group and the Humane Society film on the website.
6. Anticipate attacks. What will your opponents accuse you of and what will they use to deflate your message. Have quick answers worked out, but after using the quick answers, always turn the debate back to the issue as you have framed it--get back to the message. He says attacks all fall under four headings: it's too costly in terms of money, taxes, or jobs; it will limit my freedom; we don't need to do it because we're already doing it; you're exaggerating, it's not that bad. He counsels, "don't argue economics because that relies on expert testimony, and big money can always outspend grassroots campaigns to buy expert testimony; instead turn it back to the issue as framed." To answer the freedom question, you can point out that all decisions limit freedom and that the decisions others are making are limiting freedom. If we're already doing it, why is there a problem? You're exaggerating--get a spokesperson whom the audience trusts and who can not be accused of exaggerating.
7. The messenger should match the message. Find the right spokespersons, people with authority (a doctor? a researcher?) or experience (a family with illnesses caused by an animal factory?) of the issue who is believable. If possible turn one of their own to your side (a rancher with large animal operations who says that these requests are reasonable and fair?) and have that person be the spokesperson.
Sample Campaign Message:
North Dakota families are facing a growing health problem caused by giant animal factories in our state that are exempt from health and safety regulations and even exempt from state taxes. The giant animal factories are operating in our state pretending that they are not an industry, so that they do not have to follow rules for how they treat animals and how they produce our food. Our legislators have allowed them to hide what they are doing as the waste from their mega animal factories poison our land and water and endanger our health. We need a law to tell the truth and to treat these factories like an industry, to make them pay their fair share of taxes, to secure the public's right to know what they are doing, and to protect our land and health from irresponsible dumping of animal waste.
Sample Slogan:
Know the Truth About Animal Factories