How Republicans can win on abortion
It’s the messaging, stupid
Jeffrey Denny
MEMORANDUM
To: Ronna McDaniel, Chair, Republican National Committee
From: Craven Consulting Group, LLC
Re: Turning abortion defeat into victory
So, we took an Obama-level “shellacking” on abortion on Nov. 7.
We’ve been losing on the issue ever since our Supreme Court gave us the Dobbs decision we fought long and hard for. We feel like the dog that caught the car and then got run over.
Many say we’re losing because most Americans — Democrats, Republicans and independents alike — prefer freedom from government intrusion into their private lives.
But Republicans win on deeply unpopular issues all the time, like unfettered gun rights. The real problem, as many GOP lawmakers, activists and consultants told the Washington Post, is that “Republicans still struggle to find a winning strategy on abortion” and “the problem is messaging.”
We at Craven Consulting Group agree, and recommend the following marketing and communications “Beat America on Abortion” strategy:
1. Campaign more aggressively
You’re absolutely right, Chairwoman McDaniel, when you say Republicans need to campaign harder against abortion even despite dwindling coffers.
As you say, we need to build a “consensus as a country” about when, not if, abortion should be banned.
Calling for consensus is the first step toward creating consensus.
Our research shows that when Republican leaders call for something strongly and repeatedly, most of our voters — especially our base — will go along.
This is often because their Republican friends, families, communities and fellow Christian church-goers also fall in line with whatever our leader, Donald Trump, says. Even if they know he’s only telling his version of the truth and call themselves “independent thinkers.”
For instance, a recent CNN poll found that 70% of Republicans still believe the Democrats stole the 2020 election from President Trump. This was an increase from 63% earlier this year.
How? Simply because our President believes in his message, campaigns on his message, and stays on message.
Craven Consulting’s successful, award-winning campaigns for tobacco, oil, opioids, and Mr. Murdoch’s News Corp. demonstrate that our voters will believe whatever you tell them, true or not, if it supports their beliefs.
For example, how climate change, Covid, the 2020 election and the J6 Capitol “riot” are all Deep State hoaxes, and Fox News is fair and balanced. (Yep, those were us.)
Our team of political psychologists using AI is prepared to help us leverage this insight to defeat America on abortion.
2. More paid media
Our friends at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, who rebranded the notorious feminist (us again), recommend that Republicans “put real advertising dollars behind” changing hearts and minds.
We heartily agree, and propose a $2 billion annual media buy to blanket and dominate broadcast, print and digital publications, digital ads, podcasts, and social media, especially X, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
Dominating the media has proven to work for Mr. Trump and his good friends on the international stage, Presidents Putin, Xi, and Erdogan, Supreme Leader Kim, and Mr. Murdoch.
Controlling what people see works especially for our base. This is why Fox News is the most-watched TV news channel for more than 21 consecutive years and captures nearly 50% of the cable news viewing audience.
Also, social media audiences, especially the important younger demo, follow and believe their phone apps more than the New York Times and other professional journalism.
This helps explain why pro-Hamas posts are trending even among even white wealthy privileged liberal Ivy college youth.
Craven Consulting’s media team is prepared to fulfill this $2 billion annual buy for a discounted 15% fee because we believe in it.
3. Better creative content
Take a page from the liberals: We need content that goes viral even more than Covid.
Craven Consulting’s creative team, which produced the hit TikTok of the $16 McDonald’s burger (message: Biden’s inflation), has been blue-sky whiteboarding a few ideations to make even government-mandated birthing popular:
· Enlist a paid volunteer influencer army. Like the Kardashians or political activists like Greta Thunberg or David Hogg to talk up the joys and tax benefits of keeping the baby no matter who the father is or how the insemination occurred.
· Sponsor a hit reality TV dating game series. Our working titles include, “Sexy Teen MAGA Bachelorette Mom,” “The Real White Stepdaddy Pregnant Unwed of Boonville, Mississippi,” and the Paul Anka-hosted, “Having My Baby.”
· Produce a #1 hit song. We’re thinking another Taylor Swift T-Swizzle/T-Pain white girl rap collaboration mashing their “Thug Story” with Paul Anka’s “Having My Baby.”
· Release an earworm. The rights to “Baby Shark” are still up in the air so we can purchase them for a song, so to speak. The reference to #baby and #shark would make the jingle ironic fun for the new gens and compel them to keep their own “baby sharks.”
4. Rebrand abortion
We need to stop calling it “baby killing.” Don’t even call it abortion. Too negative, which turns people off and sounds desperate. Psychologists say guilt and shame are poor motivators.
President Reagan taught us that the American people respond better to positive, optimistic, “sunny” branding. President Trump’s success with “Make America Great Again” and then “Greater Again” proves the point.
That’s why we always say, for instance, “tax fairness to create jobs and prosperity for hardworking Americans” instead of “tax cuts for our rich donors paid for by hardworking Americans.”
Some say we should be more nuanced and sensitive when talking about abortion and use weasel words like “limitations” and “late-term.”
But this might insult our voters who see through obvious spin. Also, many of the uneducated in our base who love Trump as he loves them won’t know what these words mean or why the difference and distinction matters, and may feel disrespected by our elites.
Craven Consulting believes we need to take a page from the Mount Rushmore of Republican branding, Roger Stone, Lee Atwater, Frank Luntz, and Carl Rove, and make anti-abortion sound better.
Our Brand Impact Award-winning team, celebrated for transforming Big Oil climate villain into Big Green climate hero, suggests rebranding abortion with popular Hollywood comedy titles that celebrate birthing and raising children against all odds.
Options include, “Bringing Up Baby,” “Three Men and a Baby,” “Knocked Up,” “Look Who’s Talking,” “Look Who’s Talking Too,” “Look Who’s Talking Now!” “Baby Mama,” “Mr. Mom,” and “Honey I Blew Up the Kids.” Or for our fundamentalist Christians, parables like “The Exorcist” and its sequels and prequels.
5. Take back the narrative
The “reproductive freedom” story dominates the liberal mainstream media that we pitch every day. But the old media’s challenge to survive opens new media opportunities to “flip the script” with compelling new narratives.
Craven’s award-winning Storytelling Team is developing a few counter-narratives:
· Rewrite feminism. Depict how the struggle for equal rights, pay, promotions, parenting and reproductive healthcare, plus abortion rights, is stressing women to the breaking point.
· Redefine manhood. Show how a real white, red-blooded, blue America-hating patriotic American man doesn’t just love Trump, drive a pickup, open carry, hate immigrants and insurrect. Tell heartwarming stories about how Trump men, like Seth Rogan after he knocked up Katherine Heigl in the movie, prove they’re father material and are pleased to keep the baby. Even if they’re not stoner Jewish baby daddies with a hot shiksa.
· Reboot “woke”. Progressives say even Republican babies are woke. They’re not born racist, misogynist, or LGBTQ haters, they have to be taught. Shift the divisive point to something all parents can agree with, that woke means the baby won’t sleep, so nobody sleeps.
***
Our “Beat America on Abortion” strategy might seem somewhat embryonic, as it was conceived one night during a team-building offsite getaway. Our people had to quickly make difficult decisions and plans. But we look forward to bringing our strategy to full term.
As Craven Consulting always says, if the client insists that we keep our strategy, and agrees to support it, then what choice do we have?
Jeffrey Denny is a Washington writer.
