Words that Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear by Dr Frank Luntz, Hyperion, 324 pp., $15 paper

Frank Luntz became a familiar face in the build up to the 2007 general election. He worked with RTE television presenting the views of focus groups on a wide range of issues. What was not so well known however is that Frank Luntz is recognised in the US as the Republican Party’s most famous spin doctor of the past fifteen years. His work has focused on taking ideologically extreme proposals he favours and finding the words to make them sound acceptable to the average American. The best known example of this was in 1994 when he helped to compose the Contract with America for Newt Gingrich.

In 2004 two groups spent €15 million on a television advertising campaign implying that virtually anyone who had a farm or business to leave to their children could be destroyed by the tax. In that year 2,429,024 Americans died. Only 18,431 of these qualified for the estate tax because it applied only to those with estates valued over $1.5 million. Less than 1% of those who died left enough money to be liable for any tax and in fact the full tax did not apply to people who left less than $20 million.

hese facts, however, are of no interest to Frank Luntz. He points out that while only 50% of Americans favoured abolishing the ‘estate tax’, more than 70% were in favour of eliminating the ‘death tax’.

hat we see here is manipulation of people to favour conservative positions they might not otherwise support. He points out that the words used must be emotionally convincing. What is required is a more emotionally convincing version of the truth. Much of this book sets out simple rules and lists. For the most part they are straightforward and convincing e.g. use small words, short sentences, offer something new, visualise. However, it is clear that the purpose of these is to manipulate people to accept positions and views they might not otherwise support.

t is interesting that Frank Luntz has appeared on the Irish political scene at this time. Given his strong conservative beliefs it is important that people realise what they are being offered when they see him work with focus groups or comment on general election results on television.