I attended a presentation on Tuesday by Alan Andreasen, a guru in the field of social marketing – how to get people to change their behaviors in order to improve their personal welfare and promote positive social change. Whether the goal is to get people to eat healthier, undergo preventive medical screenings, or save for retirement, many nonprofits spend a lot of time and money only to discover that no one is heeding their advice.
Professor Andreasen says that because nonprofit staff believe so much in their work, they often have a hard time accepting that the problem may be on their end and not with their audience. To paraphrase closely,
If you find yourself lamenting “If only we could get these people to wake up, they would understand how good this is for them,” then you are the problem.
As in the private sector, the customer is always right and your failure to sway them may very well be because you have not taken the time to listen to your audience and understand what motivates them.
On the same day as I heard Alan Andreasen speak, I found out that events were planned in Washington DC to mark the five-year anniversary of the war. My first thought was that I might be interested in taking Citrus to a simple vigil on the National Mall to reflect on the past five years. Two thirds of Americans want the troops home, so I assumed that there might be an opportunity for the country to unite in remembrance of those who have died and those who are serving overseas. While wood is the appropriate gift for a five year anniversary, I was hoping for something other than a bonfire.
Of the 14 events planned in Washington DC this week, nearly all involved civil disobedience. My daughter is good at going limp and throwing a tantrum, but I just didn’t see the point of blocking the IRS, yelling at the American Petroleum Institute offices, or harassing the wonks at the American Enterprise Institute. I strongly believe that rabblerousing is an important American tradition, but isn’t the point of civil disobedience generally to create a spectacle so that you can deliver a message through the media? Given that we have had five years to digest the facts of the war, what was the message the public needs to hear?
According to the Washington Post, the protest at the IRS began with a rallying cry of “Wake Up, America!“
The message was wrong and it showed.
Only about 200-300 people participated citywide. Reporter Dana Milbank noted that at the IRS, there was an average of 6 people for each of the 21 organizations that sponsored the event. In five years, the primary anti-war organizations have not been able to connect with people beyond the usual suspects. That is a disgrace and United For Peace and Justice organizers ought to just fold up shop.
Are people really apathetic? I don’t think so. The polls show that people are more concerned about the economy than the war, not entirely surprising given that the war has not affected most people as directly and our president has never called on the American people to do anything. As one infantry officer points out, when he returned from Baghdad, Janet Jackson’s exposed breast was the top news. I think that all of the presidential candidates are happy to talk about the economy instead of the war, but they are kidding themselves if they think the war is no longer as important.
Staging a “death march” in front of a recruiter’s office or doing techy and trendy flashmobs attract a handful anarchists or hipsters, two groups that struggle mightily to prove they are not part of the masses. That’s not a challenge — that is high school cliques redux. Building a true movement from all walks of life and sending a strong message to our leaders is much harder. May we not have another five years to do it.
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