tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/slogans-15596/articles
slogans – The Conversation
2017-10-26T12:00:19Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/85646
2017-10-26T12:00:19Z
2017-10-26T12:00:19Z
Keep calm and carry on: a slogan for an age of crisis
<p>The slogan Keep Calm and Carry On has been ubiquitous within newspaper headlines in 2017 as the UK careered from one crisis to another. It seems to sum up a very British character – yet it is used the world over to represent the fight against adversity. Some people may be getting sick of it but it is now firmly stamped in the national consciousness and is here to stay.</p>
<p>Having tracked use of the slogan since 2009 on Google Alerts, there has been a noticeable rise in its use in 2017, from a couple each day, to over fifteen for a few days after each crisis. This follows attacks at Westminster Bridge, Manchester Arena, Parsons Green and after the Grenfell Tower disaster. Headlines included: <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/kevin-brennan/keep-calm-and-carry-on_2_b_15581548.html">Keep Calm and Carry On</a>; <a href="http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2095482/why-shaken-manchester-will-keep-calm-and-carry-after-terror">Why shaken Manchester will keep calm and carry on after the terror attack</a>; Day After London Attack, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/.premium-1.793707">Britons Keep Calm and Carry on Drinking</a>; and <a href="https://www.currencysolutions.co.uk/news/grenfell-brexit-eu-keep-calm-and-carry-on.html">Grenfell, Brexit, EU: Keep Calm and Carry On?</a>.</p>
<p>Something about Britain feeling under a sustained sense of attack appears to have made this phrase particularly relevant for contemporary headlines. It is not that surprising, as the slogan was designed for the British nation, intended to be “a rallying war cry that will bring out the best in every one of us and put us in an offensive mood at once” – so said A P Waterfield in 1939. He was the civil servant working for the Ministry of Information, the department which created the famous <a href="http://drbexl.co.uk/2009/04/05/1939-3-posters/">“Keep Calm” poster</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190034/original/file-20171012-31431-ly6tx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190034/original/file-20171012-31431-ly6tx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190034/original/file-20171012-31431-ly6tx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190034/original/file-20171012-31431-ly6tx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190034/original/file-20171012-31431-ly6tx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1128&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190034/original/file-20171012-31431-ly6tx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1128&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190034/original/file-20171012-31431-ly6tx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1128&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Keep Calm and Carry On Poster.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© IWM Art.IWM PST 014815.jpg</span></span>
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<h2>Keeping calm in the 21st century</h2>
<p>That could have been the end of the “Keep Calm and Carry On” and for many years it was. But, in 2001, Stuart Manley of <a href="https://www.barterbooks.co.uk/">Barter Books</a>, having discovered an original poster in the bottom of a box of auction books, decided to frame it and display it in the shop. Having established that it was out of copyright, he created copies that went on sale. In 2005, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/30/ditch-nostalgia-television-politics-austerity-bake-off">after being featured in The Guardian</a>, sales of the poster rose to 9,000 in one month alone. Then, in 2009, as the economic crisis took hold, the poster started to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/magazine/05FOB-consumed-t.html">appear everywhere</a>.</p>
<p>That year the BBC asked if it was <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7869458.stm">the greatest motivational poster ever</a> – as “the very model of British restraint and stiff upper lip”. Comments under the piece indicated that many had found the poster slogan useful in times of family illness, redundancy and moving house. For some it had even restored their sense of national identity. Barter Books, who expressed to me that they were unimpressed with the many variations, held that the original poster would have “resonance at any time”. </p>
<p>Having sold significant quantities of the original poster to doctors’ surgeries, hospitals, schools, army bases, embassies, government departments, and even to Downing Street, they felt it struck a chord anywhere that works at a hectic pace. The very “Britishness” of the design was why they loved it in the first place – and probably why so many others do too. Fraser McAlpine, a writer specialising in content for American Anglophiles, <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-surprising-history-of-keep-calm-and-carry-on-2015-6">said</a> “Keep Calm” is for Brits what “I HEART NY” is to New Yorkers.</p>
<h2>A very British phrase</h2>
<p>The phrase is seen to emulate a particular type of Britishness. It demonstrates a certain amount of nostalgia for a time when we all “pulled together”, “had a cup of tea” and “got on with it”. Its global appeal, however, demonstrates that it both epitomises Britishness and transcends it. <a href="https://wordsinwartime.wordpress.com/2016/08/02/rethinking-the-birth-of-an-expression-keeping-calm-and-carrying-on-in-world-war-one/">Lynda Mugglestone</a>, professor of the History of English at the University of Oxford, talks about how the notion of “business as usual” has a long history in the English language, but once coupled with that of “carry on” – as Lloyd George had done in World War I – it evoked a wartime mindset. Conveying a determination not to give in, it created a sense of resilience and resistance, to continue as normal, whatever happens. </p>
<p>When the slogan became the subject of a <a href="http://blogs.bl.uk/patentsblog/2011/09/keep-calm-and-carry-on-trade-mark-dispute.html">trademark dispute</a>, the Manley family, which owns Barter Books, decided as a matter of principle to contest the European ruling that Mark Coop, who owns <a href="http://www.keepcalmandcarryon.com/">Keepcalmandcarryon.com</a> could trademark the slogan. The Manleys did not think anyone had the right to own the phrase, saying that it was like trying to trademark “it was the best of times”. The case rested on whether there was something “inherent” in the term itself and the European ruling (provided in paperwork from Barter Books) concluded that “while it may be true that the message of the mark in some way chimes with the spirit of the times … it cannot be said … [to be] a commonplace message”. It was said to be reflection of a broad “attitude to life” rather than a specific phrase. </p>
<p>In 2012 the writer Charlie Brooker <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jan/08/charlie-brooker-new-year">complained</a> that it was time to stop with the variations of “Keep Calm”, but five years later, it can still be found in every tourist shop and looks set to remain a part of the cultural landscape for the foreseeable future, especially in times of personal and national crises.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85646/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bex Lewis is the author of Keep Calm and Carry On: The Truth Behind the Poster</span></em></p>
How one simple phrase went on to symbolise the fight against adversity.
Bex Lewis, Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing, Manchester Metropolitan University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/77121
2017-05-04T11:26:16Z
2017-05-04T11:26:16Z
Strong and stable leadership: inside the Conservatives’ election slogan
<p>If you’ve heard an interview with any Conservative politician during the current election campaign, you’ve probably heard the phrase “strong and stable leadership”. Theresa May used the phrase three times in seven minutes on the day she <a href="https://www.conservatives.com/GeneralElection2017">announced the vote</a>.</p>
<p>It was clearly a key slogan – and therefore a key aspect of the campaign – right from the start. Since then, Buzzfeed has tracked May’s use of the phrase (giving up at <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/patricksmith/here-are-57-times-theresa-may-has-said-strong-and-stable?utm_term=.vt88BK035#.chjEp10Wq">57 times in ten days</a>). It even featured in the political cartoon for the first edition of the London Evening Standard under its <a href="https://theconversation.com/george-osborne-at-the-evening-standard-the-latest-through-a-long-revolving-door-74783">new editor</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"859380813917552641"}"></div></p>
<p>It would be easy to dismiss this as just one of those irritating political hooks that are part and parcel of any election. Political history is littered with some far worse campaign slogans (remember the Conservatives’ 2005 “Are you thinking what we’re thinking?” – an obscure slogan, to which the public’s answer was a <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/default.stm">clear “no”</a>). But everything we know about leadership tells us that language is central, so we have to take this careful repetition seriously. What does Theresa May mean by “strong and stable leadership” – and why is it important?</p>
<h2>Constructing a reality?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.isenberg.umass.edu/people/linda-smircich">Linda Smircich</a> and <a href="http://schulich.yorku.ca/faculty/gareth-morgan/">Gareth Morgan</a>, two of the world’s most prominent and insightful analysts of organisation, argued in the early 1980s that “successful” leadership (that is, persuading someone to do something they wouldn’t normally do) depended on a leader persuading people of a <a href="http://jab.sagepub.com/content/18/3/NP.3">specific reality</a>. This process of social construction happens mostly through language. That makes language central to politics, as a means of persuasion as much as a means of communicating ideas or policies.</p>
<p>“Strong and stable” tells us that the Conservative party strategists want us to think of all other options as weak and unstable. Social theorists have been telling us for a long time that the meaning we derive from language is relational. The idea of “strong” is therefore understood in relation to an implicit idea of “weak”. Conservative-sponsored adverts in this election and the last in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/mar/13/spin-it-to-win-it-what-does-that-miliband-salmond-poster-tell-us-about-the-battle-of-the-political-brands">2015</a> are keen to tell us the parties and leaders who are weak and unstable. </p>
<p>There’s usually a hierarchy in this way of constructing meaning. The implication here is that strong is better than weak. This is especially true of the idea of leadership. We are bombarded daily with implicit and explicit messages that strong leadership is the ideal. You don’t have to be a believer in <a href="https://www.greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/">“servant leadership”</a> to doubt the idea of strong leadership. There’s <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1742715005057671">plenty of evidence</a> of the damage that strong leaders, in politics and in workplaces, can do. </p>
<h2>The strong man?</h2>
<p>There’s another factor at play here, too. The repetition of “strong and stable” is becoming important because it carries a series of assumptions with it. Who do you think of when someone talks about strong leadership? Someone tall, able-bodied, probably white, speaking in a deep pitch – and probably male. This ideal is reinforced by <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2005.00532.x/abstract">corporate commissioned leader portraits</a> and by the representation of leaders in <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9780230516328">popular culture</a>. </p>
<p>The promotion of this leaderly ideal by a Conservative party led by a woman at the moment isn’t especially surprising. We’re in the midst of a significant fourth wave of feminist activism and theory and political representation is one of the key areas of activity. British politics, with the honourable exception of the Labour party, is notoriously resistant to structural change through positive discrimination schemes such as quotas. In representing their woman leader in this way, the Conservatives emphasise their contribution to that wider social movement, but without really questioning it. </p>
<p>This election campaign will see a lot of discussion about whether we can trust political party leaders. Laying claim to being “strong and stable” shouldn’t mean unthinking followership. When any of us hear a politician, or someone with leadership responsibility in a workplace, tell us what kind of leadership they think we need – ask why they need to use language in this persuasive way, what they’re not saying, and what associations the linguistic images bring with them. Then maybe we can avoid following leaders without thinking. That can only end badly.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77121/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Taylor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Why is the PM constantly repeating this phrase and what impact is it really having on her campaign?
Scott Taylor, Reader in Leadership and Organisation Studies, University of Birmingham
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/71908
2017-02-02T10:24:36Z
2017-02-02T10:24:36Z
Political populists – the new branding trail blazers?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155169/original/image-20170201-12678-ymf4ro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Why on earth would business turn to politics and politicians for marketing advice? Or potentially base their strategies for market disruption on the actions of political leaders and their campaigns? Even stop for a moment to think about this: “Aha, if I copied the politicians just think of the benefits for my brand!” </p>
<p>Business always has an interest in the regulation of industries by governments. Firms keep a shrewd eye on trends in interest rates, economic growth projections and each of the main party’s economic policies. Some even make sure they’re on top of foreign policy and its potential influence on key overseas markets. But isn’t looking in the direction of politics for examples of commercial “best practice” unheard of? If so, it’s clearly time for a change.</p>
<p>I wonder if you recognise the phrases <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/19/take-back-control-slogan-left-power-right-state-intervention">“take back control”</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_America_Great_Again">“make America great again”</a>? Chances are they won’t fail to summon up a reaction. Not just for you, but many other people. People of diverse political persuasion, age and cultural background. Two phrases that cross traditional boundaries, that are sure to trigger a response, maybe stimulate a conversation or even automatically place an individual into a particular social group: as a “Leaver” or a “Remainer”; “for Trump” or “against Trump”. Groups with labels that, for some, in a few words, sum up their world view. And all of this as a result of a three or four word phrase, from a political campaign. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155192/original/image-20170201-12678-qa759i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155192/original/image-20170201-12678-qa759i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155192/original/image-20170201-12678-qa759i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155192/original/image-20170201-12678-qa759i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155192/original/image-20170201-12678-qa759i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155192/original/image-20170201-12678-qa759i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/155192/original/image-20170201-12678-qa759i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">He’s sold.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/lancaster-pa-august-9-2016-following-467574749?src=aBmf2z9n95XCSUT3d_G93g-1-21">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>So what does this all mean for the commercial world? Well, firms want their brand to sum them up in a few words. They want a brand with wide appeal that can cross traditional boundaries in society and which appeals to many different audiences. A brand can be used to bring together diverse groups, including customers, employees and suppliers, to generate a strong bond and sense of affiliation with the firm. An individual’s sense of membership can be so strong they use the brand to demonstrate to others who they are, what they stand for and <a href="http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/public/article620276.ece">what makes them distinctive</a>. How do we know this? Not through hearsay, myth or superstition – but from research.</p>
<p>Some firms have achieved this high level of brand performance. This includes <a href="https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/about/the-partnership-spirit.html">the John Lewis Partnership</a>, which includes Waitrose supermarkets. The organisation, through its partnership philosophy, considers itself part of a wider community with customers and suppliers. Not only are employees owners of the business, customers and suppliers are considered as partners in the business’s success. To the Nationwide, a building society, their customers are not just customers, <a href="http://www.nationwide.co.uk/about/why-choose-nationwide/all-about-membership">they are members</a>. Who are, on the one hand, recognised as individually authentic and different, while on the other considered as collectively important and influential.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">John Lewis’s eagerly awaited Christmas ads.</span></figcaption>
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<p>There are many other firms, Apple included, whose brands confer to individuals a sense of belonging and collective identity. Having an iPhone, iPad, MacBook all signal that you’re an Apple person and make a statement about who you are and what you stand for.</p>
<p>But many firms aren’t very good at this. <a href="http://harris-interactive.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2016/04/hi-brands-information-sheet.pdf">Recent research</a> jointly conducted by Aston Business School and Harris Interactive shows that brands with a poor sense of collective identity and poor co-creation with their customers lack vitality. This results in consumers rating them relatively poorly against direct competitors and less relevant for the future.</p>
<h2>Some tips for business</h2>
<p>So what useful insight about branding can businesses get from political campaigners? </p>
<p><strong>Focus on collective identity, <a href="http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470660155.html">not just individualism</a></strong>. Recent successful political campaigns do not just follow the traditional line of focusing on the needs of many different individuals. They raise issues and speak to individuals as members of a particular group to which a very substantial number hold a strong sense of membership and affinity. A potential new community.</p>
<p><strong>Concentrate on a few simple core issues</strong>. Rather than focus on an array of different issues, campaigns that concentrate on a few strong core ones will better bring the community together. Concentrate on making individuals feel part of a wider movement and, in doing so, bind them to a collective identity, connecting them to a common cause. In the US, the Trump campaign framed issues around putting people first in politics and the US first in trade. In the UK, Vote Leave primarily focused on immigration and the UK making its own decisions in its own interests. For both campaigns, all other issues were interpreted and channelled through these two different and distinct lenses.</p>
<p><strong>Have one simple message around a single purpose.</strong> Focusing on collective identity makes the campaign messaging simple. A few chosen words bring the core issues to life and reinforce individual membership of a wide movement – back to those “make America great again” and “take back control” slogans. Both are not passive statements, based on the past, but are purposeful with an end goal in mind. They communicate the purpose and goal of the community.</p>
<p><strong>Show future relevance.</strong> Historically some campaigns by political parties have successfully aimed to revive a collective idea of the past based on party history, focusing in on their underlying ideology and founding principals. The winning campaigns in the US presidential election and the European referendum question the modern relevance of this approach. Instead, raising and positioning what the campaign and its supporters see as a positive, alternative and compelling picture of the future can galvanise a community to see itself as an active and vocal part of the future, not just a group of passive and inactive spectators. </p>
<p>Of course, these observations neither show support for or against either of the campaigns. Nor is it the purpose of this piece to reinforce the politics or aspirations behind them. Only time will tell if the political application of these principals not only wins elections but translates into long-term political success. For business, however, it gives pause for thought. If used in a positive and constructive manner, these simple four principals could be used to transform a brand’s success.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71908/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>As part of Aston Business School Keith Glanfield was part of a project on brand performance for Harris Interactive </span></em></p>
Businesses were top dog when it came to branding but popular politics show there’s a new player in town.
Keith Glanfield, Lecturer in Brand Marketing and Identity, Aston University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/51138
2015-11-27T04:37:51Z
2015-11-27T04:37:51Z
Student protesters must move beyond hashtags to real change
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102812/original/image-20151123-18261-1sege1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">University of Johannesburg students summarise their goal in a hashtag. The question is, what happens next?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kim Ludbrook/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Protest movements are manifestos of a sort. Like manifestos, both political and aesthetic, they usually aim to create the support they need by seeking to identify a wrong, then proposing a way of righting it.</p>
<p>The best and most durable manifestos seek to provide an explanatory framework that brings the wrong in question into sharp focus. The manifesto draws on the resources of history and theory to promise an increased capacity for human agency and control over - or at least positive intervention in - the existing state of things.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/marx-publishes-manifesto">Communist Manifesto</a> of Marx and Engels was written in 1848. It came with the promise that understanding the world through its analyses would help to bring change. Despite its strong analysis, the manifesto had absolutely no immediate impact. But the depth of its thinking and its important reframing of social and economic understanding slowly converted into a long-term influence that makes it, today, the world’s most famous political manifesto.</p>
<p>South Africa in 2015 saw triumph for the hashtag; success for the slogan. University students won important gains in what became known as the #FeesMustFall movement. Now, in the aftermath of their immediate success, it may be a good moment to recognise some of the movement’s limits. Is there a danger that what the protest-manifesto gains in speed and reach through its use of a hashtag, it may lose in depth?</p>
<h2>A new era of protest</h2>
<p>The advent of social and digital media in the past decade or so has meant an extraordinary increase in both the speed and the reach of the protest –manifesto. From Tunisia, across the varied mass demonstrations of the Arab Spring, to the gatherings of los Indignadas in Spain and the Occupy Wall Street movement in the USA, the social media dissemination of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/social-media-can-bring-down-politicians-but-can-it-also-make-politics-better-46705"># protest</a> has helped bring otherwise isolated people together in the occupation of public spaces. It has given them the courage to stand up to often harshly repressive governments.</p>
<p>Above all, the extraordinary speed and reach of a #slogan like #FeesMustFall relies on the #’s semiotic power to successfully condense a variety of issues around a single rallying point. South Africa’s universities are the latest to experience this power first hand.</p>
<p>It was a fight against fee increases that launched the protests. The issue of fees condenses all the problems that arise from the central contradiction running through the higher education system since 1994. This is the simultaneous growth and shrinkage of the system as a whole. It refers primarily to the question of state funding and support for a transforming system.</p>
<p>There has been a massive and welcome growth in student numbers since 1994. Simultaneously, the government has significantly lowered its financial contribution to universities. State support <a href="http://www.dhet.gov.za/Reports%20Doc%20Library/Report%20of%20the%20Ministerial%20Committee%20on%20the%20review%20of%20the%20National%20Student%20Financial%20Aid%20Scheme.pdflink?">declined by around 20%</a> in the years between 1996 and 2008. The country’s deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa chaired a committee in 2013 that <a href="http://www.dhet.gov.za/SiteAssets/Latest%20News/Report%20of%20the%20Ministerial%20Committee%20for%20the%20Review%20of%20the%20Funding%20of%20Universities.pdf">recommended</a> significant increases in funding. The report found that these were essential to the maintenance - never mind the further growth - of the system.</p>
<h2>Problems are far deeper</h2>
<p>The rise in tertiary fees that mobilised students is just one symptom of the systemic stress produced by this central contradiction. Addressing it alone is unlikely to be of much help to the fragile ecology of the system as a whole, not to the lives and learning experiences of the students in it.</p>
<p>The strains in the ecology of the higher education system are there for all to see. Lecture halls and seminar rooms, designed to meet the needs of the highly restricted elite system of higher education during apartheid, are too small for the numbers proper to a system of mass education. Libraries at even the wealthiest institutions are not keeping up with scholarly and student demand. Academic staff are stretched thinner and thinner as teaching, administrative and research duties increase in line with the demands of global templates and rankings.</p>
<p>At the same time, anger over fees is surely at least partly generated by the second decisive fact or feature of the post-apartheid higher education system: its extremely poor ‘throughput’ ratio. This is the rate at which students entering university complete their degrees and graduate.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dhet.gov.za/Reports%20Doc%20Library/Report%20of%20the%20Ministerial%20Committee%20on%20the%20review%20of%20the%20National%20Student%20Financial%20Aid%20Scheme.pdflink?">Up to 40%</a> of a student loan can be converted into a student grant on successful completion of each year’s work. But 55% of students are likely to <a href="http://www.che.ac.za/sites/default/files/publications/Full_Report.pdf">not complete</a> their degrees, so the issue of fees is always at the same time an issue of teaching.</p>
<p>Again, the key feature here is the transformation of the higher education landscape. In 1994 it was an elite system that catered to only <a href="http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198716082.001.0001/acprof-9780198716082-chapter-7">around 12%</a> of the population. Today it’s a system of mass participation, aimed at providing for 30% in <a href="http://www.researchictafrica.net/home_archive_reader.php?aid=131">the next decade</a>.</p>
<p>As the Curriculum Reform Report of 2013 argued, the system as a whole needs re-gearing, with concerted attention being paid to the content and progression of undergraduate studies. It <a href="http://www.che.ac.za/sites/default/files/publications/Full_Report.pdf">called</a> for three year programmes of undergraduate study to be lengthened to four years.</p>
<p>Calls for curriculum change have been largely in terms of content. It may be that the real problem for students is that of teaching form, and the need for sustained critical reflection on the progressive structure of teaching in and across all degrees to meet the needs and help to realise the potential of the new mass student body.</p>
<h2>From manifesto to change</h2>
<p>It is only by systematic analytic attention to these material contradictions in the higher education system as a whole that the causes of alienation experienced by so many students are likely to be understood and addressed. Without this kind of attention - the manifesto element in the protest-manifesto - we may well end up with only providing imaginary solutions to real problems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51138/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Higgins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Student protests in South Africa saw triumph for the hashtag and success for the slogan. What lies beyond this as students push for genuine change in universities?
John Higgins, Arderne Chair of Literature, with interests in higher education as well as topics in literary, cultural and political studies, University of Cape Town
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/38632
2015-03-24T09:44:48Z
2015-03-24T09:44:48Z
To ask or not to ask? A question for advertisers
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75709/original/image-20150323-17688-18d1k35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The logo of the "Got Milk?" campaign.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Got_Milk%3F#/media/File:Gotmilk.png">Public domain </a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>From “Got Milk?” to “Just do it,” slogans and advertising phrases can come in the form of questions or statements. But which kind sells more products? </p>
<p>What if there had been “Got milk” or “Just do it?” campaigns? Would they have been equally effective in promoting milk and Nike?</p>
<p>My research forthcoming in the <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057740815000029">Journal of Consumer Psychology</a> shows that this depends on the situation. </p>
<h2>It all depends</h2>
<p>A statement is more likely to convey clarity, but a question is more likely to engage the mind.</p>
<p>If consumers are experiencing high arousal (i.e., an excited or stimulated state) – perhaps stemming from a TV show, web page, sports event, social interaction, or other context – they tend to prefer clarity. </p>
<p>But under normal, calm conditions, they often appreciate questions, which invite them to think and reach their own conclusions. These need not be particularly deep or complex questions, but the mere presence of a question mark implies uncertainty or ambiguity, which can be enough to spark a little bit of curiosity and elaboration.</p>
<h2>Human evolution and uncertainty</h2>
<p>These tendencies are presumably rooted in our evolutionary past. Curiosity and an appreciation for interesting stimuli would have led our ancestors to learn and prosper. However, if an opportunity or threat sparked high arousal, this would often call for clear, immediate assessments. </p>
<p>For example, a person being attacked or whose prey is about to escape would typically benefit more from clear information to make snap judgments, even if interesting or ambiguous questions could be useful under calmer circumstances. People whose genes caused them to value interestingness under low arousal and clarity under high arousal would tend to survive, thrive, and ultimately pass on those genes. </p>
<p>Today, we might therefore expect calm consumers to appreciate questions and excited consumers to appreciate statements. Many other factors come into play, and one cannot predict the efficacy of an ad campaign based exclusively on this argument, but it suggests a tendency that should be observable in modern behavior. </p>
<p>Experiments with ordinary consumer products (pens and berries) supported this notion. </p>
<p>In one study, participants were exposed to an ad for a pen in which the ad copy stated, “The pen for you” or asked, “The pen for you?” At the same time, they were shown pictures of an exciting (e.g. a shark) or dull (e.g., an empty pool) nature. The participants who viewed the exciting images responded more favorably to the ad framed as a statement, but those who viewed the dull images responded more favorably to the ad framed as a question. </p>
<h2>Purchasing in calm or excited states</h2>
<p>In another study, I had placed an electronic ad display near strawberries in a Norwegian supermarket. When shoppers approached the strawberries, this device played music of a calm or arousing nature. It also displayed the Norwegian word for berries, punctuated by a period or a question mark. When the arousing music was playing, a higher percentage of shoppers exposed to the period purchased strawberries, as compared to those exposed to the question mark. However, when the calm music was playing, a higher percentage of shoppers exposed to the question mark purchased strawberries, as compared to those exposed to the period. </p>
<p>These findings suggest that communicators should keep the context in mind when framing a phrase as a question or a statement. For instance, ads might be embedded in calm or exciting material, and a given phrase can be framed to fit with that material. Similarly, political speeches and debates ebb and flow with changing levels of intensity, and politicians can frame their phrases to fit with the current atmosphere. </p>
<p>Asking or stating at the right time can make a difference in persuasive impact. The context might be less important once a phrase becomes a familiar slogan that is no longer processed as new information. However, even campaigns such as “Got milk?” or “Just do it” may get an initial boost if such phrases are introduced in the right context at the right time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38632/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henrik Hagtvedt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Got milk? Or: Just do it. Which is a more effective ad slogan? New consumer research probes how minds respond to questions in advertising ploys.
Henrik Hagtvedt, Boston College
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.