We just returned from the final night of the local county fair. We had a quick bite to eat at a food tent, and next door was a booth for this local campaign. As I looked at the large poster and t-shirts people were walking around with I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
Here’s the deal—Ottawa County, MI (where I live) is dry on Sunday. Well, sort of. You can buy hard liquor at a restaurant, but can’t pick up a 6-pack of beer from the local party store. The law is a vestige of the conservative Christian heritage of the area and the desire to keep Sunday set aside as a holy day.
I don’t have strong feelings one way or the other on the actual issue.
What I was just amazed by was the marketing campaign.
You see - if they are successful in getting the issue placed on the ballot, Michigan law requires the proposal to be written such that if you want to change the law to allow Sunday beer and wine sales, you have to vote “No”.
But No is so…...negative sounding. You certainly don’t want make posters and t-shirts and website banners with the word No in big honking letters, right? So let’s do that spin game where we try to say the same thing in a more positive light - so hence was born the “Say Yes to Sunday” campaign. The image I have here is the one they have on all posters and t-shirts.
So what?
Look at that image for the 3-5 seconds you’d see it on a poster or t-shirt.
The final call to action (“Vote No on November 4”) is almost invisible on this design, lost in the the Yes language, and casual viewers of it will walk away with completely the opposite understanding of what they need to do to support the campaign.
This campaign is effectively eating its own tail.
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