Table Of Content
WORDS
THAT
WORK
It’s Not What You Say,
It’s What People Hear
DR. FRANK LUNTZ
This book is dedicated to the 300 million Americans
who make my day-to-day life so
interesting and challenging, often annoying, but always rewarding.
Thanks to you, I am never bored.
C O N T E N T S
Acknowledgments v
Introduction vii
The War of the Words xxi
I. The Ten Rules of Effective Language 1
II. Preventing Message Mistakes 34
III. Old Words, New Meaning 49
IV. How “Words That Work” Are Created 71
V. Be the Message 81
VI. Words We Remember 107
VII. Corporate Case Studies 127
VIII. Political Case Studies 149
IX. Myths and Realities About Language and People 179
X. What We REALLY Care About 205
XI. Personal Language for Personal Scenarios 229
XII. Twenty-one Words and Phrases
for the Twenty-first Century 239
XIII. Conclusion 265
iv Contents
The Memos 269
Appendices
The 2003 California Gubernatorial Recall 271
The 21 Political Words and Phrases
You Should Never Say Again . . .
Plus a Few More 279
The Clinton Impeachment Language 289
Notes 297
Index 303
About the Author
Cover
Copyright
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
T
his is the part where most authors describe their efforts as a “labor of
love” and then list all the special people who “made this book possible.”
I can’t. The truth is, this was the single most difficult task I have
undertaken—and it ensured that I did not get a decent night’s sleep for
the past year.
The person most responsible for my lack of fitful rest is my agent,
Lorin Rees, from whom I mistakenly took a call on a rare Sunday when
I actually wasn’t working eight hours. He convinced me to use that af-
ternoon to write up a book proposal that somehow he managed to sell at
exactly the minimum amount I was willing to accept. He has never re-
ceived a pleasant e-mail from me during this entire process. At least he
made some money out of it.
Next in line is Jonathan Karl, who has spent the last half decade end-
lessly nagging me into writing this text. He doesn’t know this but on sev-
eral occasions during the more stressful periods I actually thought about
having Dr. Kevorkian pay him a visit. I have to be careful not to say any-
thing bad about him: He’s one of the best reporters in Washington, D.C.,
and he’s liable to go out and dig up dirt on me.
The person who has the right to be most angry with me is my editor,
vi Acknowledgments
Gretchen Young, who took this assignment after my initial editor departed
Hyperion. She must have done something terribly wrong in her previous
life to have been given this book. She has suffered the most, and so to
her only, I apologize. (If you ever mistakenly consent to write a book, in-
sist that she be your editor. She’s a saint.)
I also have to thank the entire Hyperion team, who compassionately
laughed at all of my bad jokes and never once made me feel like the lin-
guistic geek that I am.
My staff at Luntz Maslansky Strategic Research also shoulders some
of the responsibility. From the interns who sifted through a billion pages
of Internet material to help me find the pearls of wisdom to Amy Kramer,
who actually read much of this text four times, they got to enjoy my frus-
tration on a daily basis—up close and personal.
Bill Danielson deserves an acknowledgment of his own. Not only did
he help with the initial draft of this book but he happens to be one of the
best young writers in America today. I also have to personally thank
Michael Maslansky, my business partner, for helping me sell my com-
pany (and John Wren from Omnicom for buying it) in the midst of this
effort. Even if no one anywhere actually buys this book, his success will
allow me to enjoy life on eBay forever.
Time is a precious commodity, and so I express particular thanks to
Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell, Norman Lear, Bill Maher, Robert Shapiro,
Aaron Sorkin, Jack Welch, and Steve Wynn for graciously allowing me to
plumb their words of wisdom.
There are certain individuals who had absolutely nothing to do with
this book, thank God, but nevertheless had a life-changing impact on
my professional life that is deeply intertwined with this text. In chrono-
logical order, they are: my parents; Dr. Robert Derosier, the best teacher
in America; Senator Jim Buckley, the most principled political figure I
ever worked for; Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the most successful leader I ever
worked for; Speaker Newt Gingrich, the smartest politician I ever worked
for; Tony Blankley and Tony Coehlo, the best personal advisors one could
ever hope for; Lawrence Kadish, the definition of a Great American;
Frank Fahrenkopf and Steve Wynn, who were responsible for my first
Language Dictionary; and Steve Capus, Phil Griffin, and Jonathan Wald,
who put my private focus groups on national television. I can never ade-
quately express my appreciation to them for all that they have done for
me. This is just my latest failed attempt.
INTRODUCTION
“Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit
that the English language is in a bad way.”1
—George Orwell ( )
1946
S
eptember 18, 2004: Writer, socialite, political gadfly Arianna Huff-
ington, a conservative-turned-liberal political-activist-to-the-stars, in-
vites thirty-five of Hollywood’s most important power players to her
Brentwood home. These are not your run-of-the-mill Democrats. They
are members of the Hollywood political elite, deeply concerned about
the direction of the U.S. presidential campaign and in outright panic
about the state of the nation.
For them, election 2004 is the battle royale for the heart and soul of
America. Having watched their “victory” in 2000 “stolen” from them by
the Supreme Court, they feel they are witnessing once again the disinte-
gration of a national election before their very eyes. Hollywood Demo-
crats had gladly flocked to John Kerry, but now they think he is blowing
it in the wake of the Republican National Convention and the drip-drip-
drip of the Swift Boat Vets’ attack ads. Bush has surged to a five- to
eight-point lead, depending on which poll you believe. Everywhere,
Democrats are asking: Why is the President winning when the economy
is weak, the war in Iraq isn’t going well, and gas prices have climbed
above $2 a gallon for the first time ever? Why isn’t Kerry connecting
viii Introduction
with the public? What’s wrong with the words he’s using? What’s the
problem with the way he’s communicating?
And so the luminaries of the Hollywood Left arrive at Huffington’s
Brentwood mansion to listen to a guest speaker from Washington, D.C.,
and talk things through. They drive up in their open-air Mercedes,
BMWs, and Jags that cost almost as much as a house in Omaha. Warren
Beatty is there, sitting next to Rob Reiner. Larry David walks in a little
late and stands off to the side. Norman Lear, creator of All in the Fam-
ily, Maude, Good Times, and a dozen other TV shows, positions himself
toward the rear, just behind actress Christine Lahti. Well-known writ-
ers, directors, and producers with Oscars and Emmys on the mantels of
their pool houses crowd around. People of impeccable Hollywood pedi-
gree, all. And who do they come to learn from?
Remarkably, a “Republican” pollster.
There I am, the man who helped develop the language to sell the
Contract with America and deliver a Republican majority in the House
of Representatives for the first time in forty years. The man who worked
for Rudy Giuliani, two-time Republican mayor of a city where Demo-
cratic voters outnumbered Republicans 5-to-1. The man who has been
working behind the scenes for the past ten years—in debate prep sessions
and television network green rooms, in the halls of Congress and in state
capitals across the country—playing my own small part in the Republi-
can ascension and in the Democratic collapse.*
Why have I gone there, into what some of my clients and many of my
colleagues would consider enemy territory? More importantly, why do
the Hollywood elite welcome me? How do they know I’m not part of
some nefarious Karl Roveian disinformation campaign, plotting political
pranks and electoral sabotage?
The answer is simple: Although my political clients may come from one
side of the aisle, what I do is fundamentally nonpartisan. The ideas and
*Twice I was responsible for prepping GOP congressional leaders in their nationwide televised
PBS debates, first, in Williamsburg, Virginia, in October 1996, when House Speaker Newt Gingrich
and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott faced off against Democrat House Minority Leader Dick
Gephardt and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, and again four years later when GOP House
Conference Chairman J. C. Watts and Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel debated against
Senate Democrat Minority Whip Harry Reid and House Democrat Minority Whip David Bonior.
At that second debate, held at PBS studios in Arlington, Virginia, I actually had to hide for forty-five
minutes in an upstairs bathroom after Reid accused the Republicans on air of being slaves to “Frank
Luntz’s talking points.” I can only imagine what he would have said if he knew I was actually in the
building at that very moment.
